


Winchester 275

by MittenWraith



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Astronomer Castiel (Supernatural), Cowboy Dean Winchester, Cowboy Hats, Dean/Cas Pinefest, Eventual Smut, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Horseback Riding, Horses, M/M, Mutual Pining, accidental almost-nudity in a hot tub, after the requisite pining, all that gooey shmoop, did i mention the cowboy hats?, i've been reliably informed that the cowboy boots also rate a mention in the tags as fair warning, no you don't understand... COWBOY! HATS!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-23 13:26:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MittenWraith/pseuds/MittenWraith
Summary: Seven years after Sam left the family's ranch to attend Stanford, Dean's completely transformed the family's failing cattle business into a growing horse ranch. Sam's only got one condition for coming back home after graduation-- let him have a shot to build something of his own, the same as Dean's done. The catch? Sam and Eileen, along with their architect friend Hannah, want to turn a tiny corner of Dean's slice of heaven into a dude ranch.The land itself might be heaven on earth, but Dean's invested his entire life into it. He'd made his peace with being alone, until he meets Hannah's brother. Castiel is a solar astronomer who is reluctantly coerced into helping his sister charm Sam's gruff and stubborn brother into saying yes to what has become her dream project. He doesn't imagine he'd have anything in common with a cowboy, but he finds that Dean's the one who ends up charming him.Cas won't do anything to jeopardize Hannah's shot at her dream, and Dean is reluctant to put Sam's homecoming at risk. If only Dean and Cas could keep their distance from one another, maybe they could set aside their attraction for the sake of their siblings’ business plans. The heavens seem to have other plans for them…





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my 2018 entry into the [Dean/Cas Pinefest](http://deancaspinefest.tumblr.com/). This is a story I've wanted to write for years, and is loosely based on a combination of several real-life stories I heard more than 20 years ago while on vacation at a dude ranch in Arizona. I started writing this late last summer, right around the time we learned there would be some strong Western themes in early s13, but I'd completely finished the draft nearly three weeks before 13.06 aired. Needless to say I started screeching when "Space Cowboy" started playing. I hope y'all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)
> 
> (It seems only fair to warn y'all one last time about the cowboy hats, just fyi. Hold on to yours.)
> 
> The gorgeously stunning artwork is by the incredible [whichstiel](https://whichstiel.tumblr.com/). As you can probably imagine, I cried when I saw it. It's PERFECT and I'm considering proposing marriage to it. Please go shower whichstiel with all due praise (and also enjoy all the other art and fic on offer!)
> 
> Thanks also to [Strob](https://truebluecas.tumblr.com/) for beta reading for me (even if it was just a case of me distracting you with this while I finished the airport fic :P) and to [Lizbob](https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/) for pointing out all my typos and liveblogging reactions at me. Y'all are the bestest. :)

He’d been resisting it for years, but in the end it had only taken the promise of Sam coming home to convince Dean that the family business might be due for some renovation. When Sam had announced he was leaving the family’s cattle ranch for college, the ensuing shouting match with their father had left Dean worried that his brother might not ever want to come home. Four years later when Sam informed them he’d been accepted to law school, John had stormed out of the house, saddled up his horse, and hadn’t come home for days afterward, leaving Dean in charge of their entire operation. As if Dean hadn’t been single-handedly running the place for the better part of the last ten years anyway.

Dean was quietly proud of his little brother for having the guts to do what he wanted with his life, but he’d stuck around Winchester 275 because, well… someone had to carry on the family business. The first time John had taken off on an unannounced camping trip was shortly after their mother’s funeral. He’d eventually cooled off and come home, but he’d never quite been the same since. He’d become careless with the ranch, letting little things slide, probably drinking a little more than he had before. That left Dean to keep things running while their dad slowly let himself go.

A few months before Sam’s graduation, John had driven himself into town to pick up their weekly order from the feed store and never came home again. Pickup truck versus semi never had a happy ending.

Of course Sam had come home for the funeral, but the moment Dean had tried to convince him to stay, Sam put his foot down. He wouldn’t abandon his education so close to the finish line, after nearly seven years away from home. But he did make Dean an offer that was worth considering. They were out in the barn after the funeral, and Sam was already packed and ready to leave again.

“I’m going back, Dean. It’s less than three months now.”

“I can’t run this place on my own, Sam,” Dean had argued.

“Of course you can,” Sam replied. “You’ve been doing it for years. Since before I even left for Stanford.”

“But dad--”

“No, Dean,” Sam cut him off with a slash of his hand. “Dad had been running on autopilot for years. Maybe even since Mom died. You’re the one who’s kept this place running. You and the people you’ve hired over the years. You can do this, Dean.”

“Yeah,” Dean replied, shuffling a loose clump of straw into the nearest horse stall with the toe of his boot. “Well, maybe I don’t want to.”

“Dean, look at me.”

Dean tore his gaze away from the horse in the stall beside him and slowly looked up at his overgrown brother. When he met his eyes from under the brim of his hat Sam smiled at him.

“Three months. When I graduate, I want you to take a vacation. Come visit me.”

Dean shot his brother a look of utter disbelief. “Of course I’m gonna come for your graduation. I did the last time you graduated.”

Sam smiled wider. “Yeah, but this time I’m gonna have a business proposition for you.”

Dean’s look of disbelief morphed into something closer to disgust. “You tryin’ to sell out the family business already?”

“No, Dean,” Sam replied. “I’m trying to save it.”

It was true, cattle ranching was a hard way to make a living. The Arizona desert wasn’t the easiest place to do it, either. Not by a long shot.  Over the years as their neighbors had given up and sold out, Dean had at least had the foresight to buy up as much of their land as he could. It wasn’t exactly prime grazing pasture, but he’d put their ranch on the map through the sheer size of the place. He’d also branched out from longhorn cattle, trading when he could for horses. What cowboy doesn’t need a good horse? When Dean had essentially taken over the reins of Winchester Ranch when he’d turned eighteen, he’d made the official decision to focus more on the care and breeding of their small but excellent stable of quarter horses. A few years later when his gamble had paid off and they were selling just as many horses as cattle every year, he’d renamed the ranch Winchester 275. It combined all the things he loved most in this world-- his family, his horses, and his Baby, a 275 horsepower 1967 Chevy Impala. It just seemed fitting, somehow, for a ranch whose new legacy was becoming its horse power.

Two weeks before Sam’s graduation, he’d sent Dean a package. Dean sat at his kitchen table late that night and opened the thick envelope over a sandwich and a beer. Inside he found a plane ticket to San Francisco and an official invitation to Sam’s graduation, along with a photo of himself looking properly lawyerly in his academic cap and gown, and a second envelope marked _Read this when you’re in a good mood-- Sam_.

Dean groaned at the ticket, muttering under his breath that he was getting around to booking his flight and pushy bitch little brothers didn’t need to do it for him, while inwardly feeling a little grateful that he wasn’t tempted to keep putting it off with an excuse to take off two extra days to drive all the way instead of flying. Seeing Sam’s name engraved on the official announcement card sent an involuntary surge of pride through him, which was wiped away in an instant when he got a closer look at the photo. He snorted at the serious face his brother managed to pull despite the fact his staid black robes were topped off with red and purple trim and a shiny golden tassel dangling over the side of his hat.

Dean took a swig of beer and then leaned back in his chair to stick the picture to the fridge with a magnet shaped like the back end of a horse. He admired his artistic improvement for a minute, then moved the magnet so the horse’s tail covered up the gold tassel and nodded in satisfaction.

That only left the mysterious packet of papers marked with Sam’s advice to read it when he was in a good mood. He grumbled under his breath that he would’ve been in a much better mood to start with if Sam hadn’t sent that airline ticket.

Dean finished up his sandwich, downed the last of his beer and slid the plane ticket to the other side of the table where he wouldn’t have to think too hard about it. He figured he was in about as good as mood as he ever was, especially with the physical reminder of his imminent air travel staring him in the face from across the table, and tore into the envelope. Inside he found a letter folded around selection of recent-- and far less mockery-provoking-- photos of Sam with his girlfriend Eileen. They’d been together for a couple of years now, and she’d come to the ranch with Sam over the last winter break. Dean had been wary of her before then, thinking she’d be the reason Sam might decide not to move back home after law school, but he’d worried a lot less after watching her fall in love with the Arizona desert, the ranch and all the horses, and most of all, with Sam.

Dean grinned as he flipped through the photos, reading the captions Sam had added on the back of each one. He set them one by one on top of the envelope. If he’d ignored Sam’s advice on the outside of the envelope, Sam probably figured the pictures were a last-ditch effort to at least put a smile on his face before he could read the letter.

“Bringing the big guns, Sammy,” Dean muttered to himself, reaching into the fridge for another beer and psyching himself up for whatever bad news he expected to find in Sam’s letter. He took a few more fortifying sips from the new bottle, cast one last quelling glance at the plane ticket, tried not to think about the horse’s ass holding Sam’s very serious face to the fridge (and failed and snorted at his own handiwork), and then unfolded the papers.

_Dean,_

_I know you’re not gonna bail on graduation, okay? The plane ticket is not about me trying to be an ass. I figured I’d just make it easier on you, and save you the trouble of having to book your own travel. We’ll see you at the airport._

_Eileen insisted the rest of this couldn’t wait. She didn’t want me to spring it on you at the last minute and put you on the spot. She insisted you deserved a chance to think it over, so here goes._

_Eileen and I want to move back home. We’ve been thinking about it for a while, actually. Longer than you can imagine. Thing is, we want to do it on our own terms. We also want to do what we can to keep the ranch going, to build a legacy there._

Dean grumbled a bit at that, muttering how Winchester 275 already had a legacy that didn’t need tinkering with, thank you very much. He took another swig of his beer, glanced over at the stack of pictures of his brother looking happier than he’d seen him in a long time, and sighed. He was willing to overlook a lot if it meant Sam was finally coming home, and with that in mind he kept reading.

_Eileen’s freshman roommate went into architecture, and we’ve been talking with her a lot over the last year. We’ll tell you more about that when we see you, but I’m enclosing one of her designs. It’s nothing much, but Eileen and I would like to build our own house somewhere on the property. We were thinking out behind the main house, in the clearing by the big mesquite tree. We want to be close, but not too close, you know?_

Dean chuckled a little at that, and yeah. He knew. The main house was spacious enough for a family, but Sam and Eileen settling down there with him and maybe thinking about starting their own family someday would leave Dean feeling like an outsider in his own home. Not to mention all that couple-y shit involved in the process of starting a family… yeah, he didn’t need to be anywhere near _that_. He wasn’t averse to the idea of settling down with someone, but considering how long he’d been alone, and the likelihood of that status changing growing smaller and smaller with every passing day, he was grateful he’d be able to put a little distance between himself and the happy couple going all mushy for each other. He took a few deep breaths, shoved his loneliness down where he wouldn’t have to deal with it right away and forged on.

_We really hope you’ll agree to the plans. Hannah did a fantastic job of keeping the design in the style of the main house, the bunkhouse, and the barn. She was so intrigued by the overall style the first time I showed her pictures of home, she decided to incorporate it into her final project. She may have given us a few ideas in return._

_Dean, we really want you to be open to what could be a very big deal if you’ll just hear us out on everything. There’s so much untapped potential in Winchester 275, and Eileen and I think we may have found a way to really build something for our future there. The final decision has to be yours though, but if you don’t want to take a risk on it, we understand. Eileen and I are already pretty committed to the idea, regardless of whether you want to be a part of it or not. We can find somewhere else to build a legacy of our own if you say no, but it might not be anywhere near home. Take a look at the designs, and we’ll talk more about this when we see you in a few weeks._

_\--Sam_

Well, that didn’t sound ominous at all. Nothing like an ultimatum or anything final like that. Dean blew out a breath, drained the last of his beer and flipped to the second page beneath Sam’s letter. Might as well see what he’d be signing himself up for. If this was the only way to guarantee Sam coming home to stay, it was at least worth it to hear his brother out.

The page beneath Sam’s letter was an artistic sketch of a cute little single story adobe style house with a small walled-in courtyard out front. On the back of the page was a floor plan for the interior, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a large open kitchen and living room, and a brief description of the interior finishing touches including terracotta floors and wood beam ceilings. For all intents and purposes, it looked remarkably like a more modern, single-story version of the house Dean was sitting in, the house he’d grown up in. Sam at least had the forethought to plan for decent sized closets and a fully modern kitchen. Dean had lived for years out of his dresser and a free-standing wardrobe. He tended to scoff at comments to the effect of _they don’t build ‘em like they used to_ , because they used to build them without any sort of notion of modern convenience. It had been a pain in the ass trying to convince John the kitchen needed to be overhauled a few years back. Dean had been on the verge of setting the whole thing on fire before his father had finally relented and let him tear out the 50-year-old fixtures and bring the place up into the 21st century.

There were several other pages below the house diagrams, with various other buildings sketched out in the same style, all with the architect’s name scrawled at the bottom of each page, Hannah Novak. Each was numbered, and Dean assumed they were part of the final project Sam had mentioned. He couldn’t figure out why Sam had included them in the packet, unless it was to demonstrate Hannah’s competence and lend support to Sam’s request to build the house she’d designed on their property.

Dean paged through the drawings nonetheless, and after living his entire life in southern Arizona, he could tell this Hannah had a good grasp of the local architectural style, at least, but the rest of the buildings almost seemed commercial in nature. The first was a large three story building with an inviting plaza filled with tables and chairs situated around a fountain and garden. Dean thought it resembled an upscale shopping center more than anything. Another drawing was of a smaller cottage with two visible entrances that Dean couldn’t make heads or tails of. It looked like the world’s tiniest duplex, with meandering paths through garden areas leading to each doorway, and he couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be. The final page was clearly a spa or health club, given the pool patio on one side and tennis court on the other. Dean idly wondered if Sam’s big legacy plan was trashing his law degree in favor of opening a spa. He laughed for a moment, figuring his health-nut brother was just crazy enough to do it.

He set the whole stack of papers aside, groaned, and stood up to wash the dishes. It was late by ranch standards, but he knew Sam would likely still be up. He sent a quick text to tell Sam he got the package and attached a quick snapshot of his treatment of Sam’s graduation picture.

Sam texted back a minute later telling Dean he was looking forward to seeing him, and strategically left off any mention of the letter.

Dean stared at his phone for a few minutes more, wondering if he should bother bringing it up or if it would just amount to too much hassle. Text messages were probably not adequate for the conversation Sam was planning to have about whatever his big plans were, and Dean was too tired to deal with any of it anyway. He sighed and made his way to his room, shutting lights off as he went. It was gonna be a very long two weeks.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a very long two weeks. They’d had six new foals already drop, and had a dozen more mares expected to deliver at any time, not even taking into account the cattle. Their longhorn herd was smaller than it had been back before they’d shifted focus toward breeding horses, but the cows still outnumbered the horses at Winchester 275, for good reason. Breeding and training working cattle horses required a herd of cattle to train them with.

Dean had several very long nights out in the barn making sure every horse that went into labor delivered a healthy foal. Not that he didn’t trust his staff vet and his trainer completely, but if Jesse and Cesar were losing sleep over his horses, then Dean felt obligated to join them. It was only fair.

The morning Dean was scheduled to fly out to San Francisco, Cesar had to practically drag him out of the barn and shove him into the pickup truck waiting to take him to the airport. Cesar leaned in through the passenger side window, ignoring his scowling boss and speaking directly to the eager young driver.

“You got all his luggage?” Cesar asked Alex.

“Yes, sir,” Alex replied, grinning as Dean redirected his scowl at her. “They’re in the back. If he forgot to pack anything, he’s outta luck.”

Cesar nodded his approval. “Good, and you know the way to the airport?”

Alex rolled her eyes. “How long have I lived here? Duh.”

“Good.” Cesar reached through the window and laid a steadying hand on Dean’s shoulder. “Everything will be fine here. Garth and Bess are keeping a closer eye on the cattle, Jesse and I have the horses under control, we have Jody and Donna on speed dial in case of emergency--”

“And me,” Alex cut in.

Cesar smiled at her in acknowledgement. “And Alex.”

“One year of school doesn’t qualify you as a vet, you know,” Dean argued.

Alex just punched him on the shoulder. “No, but spending how many years working here every summer qualifies me as someone who knows what the hell goes on around here day to day. Stop worrying, Dean. Enjoy your vacation.”

“It’s not a vacation,” Dean retorted. “More like a moose wrangling.”

Alex smiled then. “Yeah, it’s gonna be good to have Sam come home again. Maybe we could work moose wrangling up as a rodeo event.”

Dean tried to paste on a smile, but it felt weak even to him. Not even the brief mental image of chasing Sam around the arena, herding him into a pen like one of the longhorns, was enough to bring out a genuine grin. He’d casually mentioned Sam’s plans to move back to the ranch to pretty much everyone who stood still long enough to listen, but he’d conveniently left out the vague conditions under which those plans could become reality. As a result, he’d spent the last two weeks worrying nearly as much about Sam and his mysterious plans as he had about the horses.

Dean sighed and shook his head, frowning up at Cesar. Before he could even open his mouth, Cesar gave his shoulder a few quick pats and stood up, grinning.

“I’ll text you a picture the second Jude’s foal hits the ground.”

Dean nodded and even smiled a little at that. He hated to miss the big event, but he did have a plane to catch. “Yeah, thanks.” He turned and gave Alex a nod as well. “Okay kiddo, let’s get this over with.”

Sam had mercifully booked him on a direct flight to San Francisco, so he’d only had to take off and land once, and the entire flight was just over two hours-- which when measured in Dean-suffering-through-air-travel-time was just a bit longer than Master of Puppets and the Black Album. The entire trauma of the flight melted away when he saw his giant of a brother standing unnecessarily on tiptoes and waving his arms above his head to get his attention in the crowded baggage claim area. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face as he picked up his pace.

The moment he saw Eileen standing beside Sam looking slightly exasperated by her boyfriend’s excessive enthusiasm, Dean detoured from Sam and scooped her up in a hug. He stepped back and signed, “Hi, Eileen. It’s good to see you again,” much to her surprise and to Sam’s delight.

Before she could even reply, Dean had moved on to hug Sam.

“How long have you been learning to sign?” Eileen asked after a few moments.

Sam let Dean go and turned to face his girlfriend, signing as he spoke. “After Christmas he told me he wanted to learn, so I sent him a few books.”

Eileen gave him an approving nod. “I’m impressed.”

“Don’t be impressed yet,” Dean replied. “You’ve already seen pretty much everything I’ve had a chance to learn.”

“Well it’s not like you’ve had a lot of time to practice,” Sam replied.

Dean shrugged and then moved toward the conveyor belt to pick up his suitcase. “So what’s the plan for the rest of the day? You know they don’t serve actual food on airplanes. You think we could stop for a late lunch?”

Sam glanced up at the clock on the nearest schedule board, and then frowned at Eileen before turning back to Dean. “We’ve got a dinner reservation in a few hours, but if you’re absolutely starving I guess we can pick something up.”

“Ooh, a reservation,” Dean replied, finally spotting his duffel bag moving along the belt and pushing his way through the crowd to retrieve it. “Sounds fancy. Please tell me it’s not fancy.”

Sam rolled his eyes as Dean hoisted his bag over his shoulder. “It’s not fancy, but we’re meeting some people there.”

Dean narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Meeting people? If you already had plans, it’s fine. I can order a pizza or something.”

Sam gave Dean’s shoulder a push toward the exit and they all headed outside. “We want you to meet these people, Dean. That’s the whole point.” Sam sighed and pushed on. “I wasn’t gonna mention it until after we had a chance to talk first, but I should’ve figured your first priority would be food.”

“Sorry, Sam. I haven’t eaten in like eight hours,” Dean replied, pulling out his phone and bringing up the picture that Cesar had sent him of Jude’s newborn foal, standing up for the first time on spindly legs beside her proud mama. “I ran out to the barn right after breakfast this morning. I had to cover for Jesse while he helped bring this little girl into the world. Then I didn’t even get to stick around long enough to see her born.”

Sam smiled down at the picture and Dean turned the phone screen so Eileen could see too, while Sam wrinkled his nose at his brother. “So you came straight from the barn and got on a plane without even showering?”

Dean scoffed at his brother. “It’s not like I was mucking out stalls, or actually helping with the delivery. I’m clean.”

Sam sniffed at his brother’s shoulder, inhaling the scent of fresh hay and Arizona dust, and then frowned a little and shrugged. “You do smell like home.”

“That’s not a bad thing, Sammy. Speaking of home,” Dean started, and then reconsidered whether the parking lot at the airport five minutes into his four day trip was the best time and place to bring it up, but his mouth had sort of made the decision for him so he cleared his throat and pressed on despite his doubts. “Speaking of home, when are you gonna share your big secret plans?”

Sam exchanged a glance with Eileen and she nodded encouragingly at him, her hands flashing through a series of signs that, despite his recent binge-watching of sign language tutorials on youtube, he was wholly unable to follow. Sam had no trouble keeping up, and signed back just as quickly and efficiently.

“Hey, you two. It’s no fair passing notes like that,” Dean said, frowning at the both of them.

“Sorry, Dean,” Sam replied as they arrived at his car and he pressed the remote to unlock the doors and pop the trunk. “Eileen’s been pushing me to tell you about it for weeks, but I wanted to wait until I could lay everything out for you.”

Dean dropped his duffel and his backpack into the trunk and slammed the lid as Eileen slipped into the back seat, leaving the front passenger seat free for Dean. “Well, I’ll be trapped in the car with you for the next half hour or so. Longer if you stop and get me a burger along the way. Might as well get it over with while I’m a captive, well-fed audience.”

Sam sat in the driver’s seat and shot a nervous glance back at Eileen in the rear view mirror, and Dean saw her grin and give him a thumbs up as he slid into the passenger seat.

“Fine, okay. Here goes.”

Sam talked as he drove, explaining how he’d first met Hannah more than three years ago when he’d started dating Eileen. She’d been in her fourth year of a five year architecture program and was fascinated by southwestern design. They’d had several conversations about the ranch where Sam had grown up, and Sam had told her all about how Dean had expanded it from a small family cattle business into a 4,000 acre horse ranch.

While Sam buttered Dean up with how impressed Hannah had been with his business acumen and his specialty of training horses for professional cowboys and rodeo, he kept Dean quiet by stopping at the first In-N-Out burger joint they passed. He ate while Sam recounted everything Dean had done in the last ten years, first to keep the ranch from going under entirely under their Dad’s absentee supervision, and then gradually taking over and making it something bigger and better than it had ever been before, something almost entirely his own.

“Fine, Sam, I get it,” Dean said when he’d finished eating and could finally get a word in edgewise. “You told this chick our life story. So what?”

“She, um... “ Sam said, glancing over at his brother while they were stopped at a red light. “She had an idea for her final project, and she asked if I minded if she used the ranch as the conceptual basis for the entire business plan.”

“Business plan?”

“Um, yeah. She had this idea, and if you hate it we’d totally understand,” Sam said, before taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders. “But we’d really like you to hear us out before you say no. Dean, this could be huge for us. For all of us.”

“And it would give you a reason to come home?” Dean said, a little bitterly.

“It’s not like that, Dean,” Sam replied. “I’d love to come back home, you know I would. But I can’t make my entire life about working the ranch. I just thought that this might be a way for both of us to get what we want out of life.”

“And if I say no?” Dean asked hesitantly.

Sam sighed and glanced over at him before focusing back on the road. “You haven’t even heard what we wanna do yet.”

“Just trying to understand the consequences here.”

“Fine. If you say no, we’ll try to find another plot of land to build on, but this is something Eileen and I are committed to.”

“So you wanna build something…” Dean trailed off, waiting for Sam to get to the point of all this mystery.

“Yeah. It was all Hannah’s idea, actually. She’d been studying the area, learning about the local architecture, and she heard about guest ranches.”

“Dude,” Dean interrupted him. “You mean dude ranches? Where a bunch of civilians camp out and pretend to be cowboys for a week at a time? What is this, City Slickers?”

“No, Dean, it’s a hell of a lot more than that. And nothing else about the ranch has to change at all. Well, aside from the fact that we’d have to hire a few more employees, and offer riding lessons, and other resort-style amenities--”

“Resort? What the fuck, Sam?” Dean had visions of Disney World and a flashback to that one time he’d let Lisa talk him into taking a trip to an all-inclusive resort down in Cancun. There was no way in hell he wanted to bring that sort of chaos into his literal back yard. He didn’t need mobs of kids treating his ranch like it was some sort of amusement park and petting zoo, or a bunch of total strangers going on tequila-fueled benders around his horses.

“No, Dean. Think less Cabo-Wabo and more relaxing spa getaway.”

“So that  _ was _ a spa,” Dean said, turning in his seat and pointing an accusatory finger at his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, congratulations. One thing we want to build, eventually, is a spa. First up would be the main guest house and restaurant. Eventually we’d like to build maybe a dozen small four-room cottages, and convert the guest house to staff residences, but that’s long-term. I swear I had a huge presentation planned with charts and graphs and everything.”

Dean frowned at him. “And how is this not gonna totally disrupt everything we do every day. The horses come first, Sam. Without them there’s no ranch at all. We’re staying afloat, but it’s not like we’re rolling in cash. How are we gonna pay for all this? You already got student loans out the wazoo.”

“Yeah, but you own the ranch free and clear,” Sam argued. “And if you’re not willing to take out a loan for the construction, Hannah and her brother are willing to come on as investors. They think there’s a solid future here, and the potential to build something really special.”

“Winchester 275’s already pretty damn special,” Dean argued. “And I don’t like the idea of owing a debt to a couple of strangers.”

“You don’t like the idea of anyone else having any say in what goes on at the ranch,” Sam replied. “I just thought telling you they were willing to risk their own money to make this happen would be proof that it really was a good idea, with a lot of potential.”

Dean sat there quietly for a few minutes thinking about how all of this would change his entire life. He was used to his comfortable routine. He liked living and working on his ranch, doing everything his way. Having a constant stream of strangers getting in the way seemed like a terrible idea. What the hell would they even  _ do _ ? Why would anyone even  _ want _ to spend their hard earned money and their precious vacation time pretending to be what he was for a living?

“So, what, you plan on giving people the polished-up movie version of a cowboy experience? And people are willing to pay for the privilege?”

“Not exactly,” Sam replied, his shoulders beginning to relax for the first time since they’d started talking. “They’d get a room, three meals a day, and a schedule of trail riding, rodeo events, and whatever else they wanted to sign up for during the day, and a rotating evening entertainment program. We could offer tours on a daily basis-- out to Tucson for sightseeing, to the Desert Museum, Tombstone, Kitt Peak. That sort of thing. Plus eventually spa treatments, the pool, tennis… at that point we’re open to ideas.”

“And how is this not supposed to disrupt everything else? You know, the actual business of running the ranch?”

“Hannah’s willing to volunteer her time to get everything up and running, and after that we’ll hire additional staff as needed. Eileen and I would take care of everything on that end of it, and you’d be free to keep running the ranch just like you always have. Only now you might have a little more cash to build that addition onto the barn, and expand the breeding program and maybe hire another trainer like you’ve been talking about for the last few years.”

“Huh,” Dean said absently, staring out the front window as they neared Sam and Eileen’s apartment building. “Guess we’d kinda have to if we needed horses for the guests to ride.”

Sam tried desperately to contain his smile. The conversation hadn’t gone at all like he’d planned, but Dean had reacted so much better than he’d dared to hope.

“So the people we’re having dinner with tonight?” Dean asked while climbing out of the car once Sam had parked.

Sam nodded. “Hannah and her brother.”

“So no pressure then.”

Dean laughed as his brother sputtered out apologies and assurances that they weren’t planning to gang up on him over dinner. Once inside the small apartment Sam and Eileen had called home for the last few years, Dean glanced around at the stacks of boxes waiting to be moved out, tossing his bags down next to the couch that was one of the few remaining pieces of furniture in the living room.

“Sorry about the mess,” Eileen said. “We figured we’d be too busy over graduation weekend, so we’re getting a head start on packing.”

Dean looked over at her and smiled as he kicked off his boots. “It’s okay, as long as you don’t plan on packing up the couch while I’m still sleeping on it.”

With that, he flung himself over the back of the sofa and folded his arms across his chest like he was ready for a nap. He blinked one eye open at Sam’s indignant scoff.

“I’ve had a long day, Sammy. I just need twenty minutes, and then I swear I’ll make myself presentable for your friends.”

Dean closed his eyes again and sighed, wriggling down into the cushions and enjoying the fact he was no longer moving. He didn’t really sleep, but spent a good long stretch of time trying to picture what his beloved home would become if he gave Sam and Eileen the go ahead to turn it into some high-budget dude ranch. It didn’t sit well with him, but he was really trying to focus on the good that would come out of it-- namely having Sam move back permanently. There was no way in hell he’d let Sam walk out on the family business again if he committed to turning it into some sort of resort. After all the work Sam would need to put in to make that happen, Dean was pretty sure Sam himself wouldn’t just be able to walk away again. In Dean’s mind, that alone was almost reason enough to say yes.

While he faked sleeping, Sam and Eileen sat at the small kitchen table carrying on a silent conversation of their own, trying not to get ahead of themselves over Dean’s decision. Sam assured Eileen that Dean had taken it all far better than expected, but they still had Hannah to contend with. She was one of Eileen’s oldest friends, but was admittedly not the easiest person to get to know. Sam silently hoped that inviting her brother, who he’d never met before, would provide a comfortable buffer that would let Hannah feel comfortable enough for her to open up with Dean in a way that had taken months for Sam when he’d first met her. If worse came to worst, at least Eileen and Sam were there to help keep the conversation from detouring into rattlesnake country. 


	3. Chapter 3

Dean got up almost exactly twenty minutes after he’d planted himself on the sofa, standing up and stretching as if he’d had a long, restful night of sleep. When Sam called out  _ good morning, Sleeping Beauty _ from the kitchen, Eileen turned around in surprise and then glanced at her watch.

“You’re right,” she said to Sam. “It’s uncanny.”

Dean glared through the wide kitchen doorway at them both. “You making fun of me, Samantha?”

“Nope,” Sam replied, grinning innocently. “Just told Eileen you were better than an alarm clock. Or a rooster.”

Dean laughed at that, and then turned to Eileen. “Yeah, well I had a good incentive. I think everyone was relieved when that old rooster Dad kept around finally bit it. The thing had no concept of sunrise, and used to crow in the middle of the damn night.”

“Isn’t that bad luck?” Eileen asked.

“Wasn’t lucky for the rooster,” Dean muttered under his breath as he reached down for his duffel and hoisted it up on the couch where he could dig through it. He pulled out his neatly folded suit and hung it from the nearest empty bookshelf, giving it a once-over to make sure it wasn’t too wrinkled. He turned back around and held his hands out. “So where are we going tonight? Am I underdressed?”

Sam rolled his eyes, but Eileen shook her head and gave him something more informative to work with.

“It’s a cafe that Hannah suggested. She said it’s casual, but I think casual means something very different in San Francisco than it does on a cattle ranch.”

Dean took his turn rolling his eyes and fished out a nicer shirt, a clean pair of jeans and his toiletry kit and headed off to shower. An hour later, after Dean was deemed presentable for mixed company and Sam had finally gotten around to showing him all those charts and graphs detailing everything from construction timetables and budget proposals all the way through projections of the potential return on their investment. Eileen eventually declared it was time to get going if they were going to make it to the restaurant on time. Dean led the way out and stood waiting by the car, until he finally turned around to see Sam and Eileen waiting for him out on the sidewalk.

“What?”

“We’re walking, Dean,” Sam told him. “The restaurant’s less than a mile away.”

Dean glanced forlornly back at Sam’s car. It wasn’t his Baby, and it definitely wasn’t a horse, but it was still better than walking a mile on a city sidewalk. Regardless, he followed as Sam led the way, still prattling on about everything from the layout of the guest areas to the long list of activities he envisioned for entertaining those guests. To Dean’s eternal relief, Eileen finally cut Sam off when they arrived at the restaurant.

Sam held the door open and stared Dean down, almost as if he was waiting for Dean to balk at having been dragged to a sushi joint. Dean smirked at him as he strolled in happily, turning back to say, “You know we do have sushi in Tucson.”

“I know,” Sam said defensively. “I just wasn’t sure  _ you  _ knew that.”

“You’ve been gone a long damn time, Sam. There’s probably a lot you don’t know about me.”

Sam gave his name to the hostess and she led them back to a secluded table in the far corner of the restaurant. As they approached, a dark-haired woman stood from the table and began signing at Eileen as she walked over and eventually enveloped her in a hug. When they parted, Eileen introduced her to Dean.

“Dean, this is Hannah. Hannah, Dean.”

Dean nodded politely since he didn’t have on a hat to tip in her direction. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she replied. “I’ve heard so much about your property, and I’ve wanted to meet you for years, it seems. Sam thought it was best to wait until he was ready to make his offer.”

At that, a man that Dean hadn’t spotted before stood up behind Hannah and cleared his throat. Dean practically kicked himself for not having noticed the guy sooner, and wondered if he had the power of invisibility. For Dean to completely miss someone that attractive practically required the intervention of superpowers. And then the man spoke in a low, rumbling tone and Dean had to remind himself to blink. And maybe to shut his mouth. And quit staring before he completely freaked the hot guy out.

“It’s starting to feel like I might have to wait years to meet any of you,” the man said.

Hannah laughed. “This is my brother, Castiel. He happened to be in town this week, but he lives just outside Tucson now. Castiel, this is Eileen, Sam, and his brother Dean.”

Dean continued to stare like a dope while Castiel signed a greeting at Eileen and then shook Sam’s hand. He was sure everyone was still talking, but everything aside from Castiel had sort of blurred into insignificance for a moment or two. Dean gave himself a little shake as Castiel turned and extended a hand in his direction. As far as Dean could tell in his current state of detachment, he was smiling politely, but he wouldn’t have bet money on it. Castiel grinned happily back at him, his blue eyes mesmerizingly focused on Dean’s while Dean did his best to remember how handshakes worked. It only took him a second or two to come back to his senses, and Dean finally released the man’s hand a little awkwardly, mentally kicking himself for his temporary loss of higher mental function.

“Sorry about my brother,” he overheard Sam saying as the rest of reality kicked back online and the spell was broken. “I think he’s been spending way too much time with the horses lately. I swear he’s got some human social skills buried under there somewhere.”

Dean cleared his throat but Castiel laughed. Dean risked a glance back up at him and caught Castiel quickly looking away from him and down at his own feet.

“I understand,” Castiel said, smiling shyly up at Dean now. “I’m often accused of the same difficulty. Only for me, it’s not horses that take the blame for my rusty people skills, but staring into the sun.”

“My brother’s a solar astronomer,” Hannah informed them. “It’s literally his job to stare into the sun.”

Sam huffed out a little laugh and they all shuffled around the table to take their seats. Conversation flowed easily enough, with Hannah and Eileen doing most of the talking. Dean wasn’t sure he caught everything they said, but he convinced himself it didn’t really matter in the long run. He’d already been at least most of the way convinced to sign off on whatever Sam thought was for the best, but meeting Hannah and Castiel and simply spending time in their company was enough to win him the rest of the way over.

He just felt it in his bones, that these were good people, and he definitely wouldn’t mind getting to know them better. Over the course of the evening, whenever he and Castiel managed to get a word in edgewise, they talked about living near Tucson. It was strange to Dean that despite living within a few dozen miles of each other, they’d had to come all the way to San Francisco to meet. More than once during dinner the two of them had to be wrangled back into the general conversation, having completely lost track of the presentation Hannah was ostensibly pitching to Dean and wandering off down their own little trails together.

At one point after their food arrived and the talk of future plans had tapered off, Dean and Castiel had swapped phones. Castiel flipped through Dean’s photo album of his horses while Dean scrolled through Castiel’s endless gallery of sunspots and fascinating views of the sun that could only be captured with the assistance of the world’s largest solar telescope. The two of them huddled together, Dean telling Cas stories about each of his horses while Cas explained the stunning array of strange things that the sun apparently did.

“I thought it was just a big ball of hot gas,” Dean said as Cas described what Dean was looking at. He knew it was the sun, but he’d never known it had huge wings of light. “This looks like an angel or something.”

Cas smiled fondly at that and shook his head. “The ring isn’t a halo, it’s part of the telescope. It allows us to more clearly capture the solar weather, flares, mass ejections. I suppose it’s not inaccurate to think of it as heavenly, though.”

Dean snorted at that and flicked to the next picture, as Cas did the same.

“Oh!”

“What is it Cas?” Dean said absently, tearing his eyes from the stunning photo taken in a specific wavelength of light that made the sun appear blue, trying not to think about the fact that it still paled in comparison to Cas’s eyes as he looked up into them.

“You called me Cas,” he said, sounding surprised but not upset.

“That’s… okay, right?”

Dean had been about to apologize for taking such a liberty with his name, but Cas nodded. “Cas is fine, yes.” He held up the phone to distract Dean’s focused attention from the pink tinge that had overtaken his face. “This horse, though. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a newborn horse. It’s miraculous.”

Dean smiled down at the picture that Cesar had sent him that afternoon; Jude’s foal not even completely dry yet and already awkwardly on her feet. He’d taken the picture head-on, so the white star marking in the middle of her forehead was clearly visible.

“She’s a beauty, huh?” Dean checked his watch. “And she’s about eight hours old now.”

“She was born today?”

Dean nodded, smiling up into Cas’s awed face as he smiled at the picture. “I missed it by a couple hours. I was on the way here. That picture was taken about two minutes after she was born.”

“What’s her name?”

“Don’t know yet,” Dean said. “What do you think we should name her?”

“Oh, I couldn’t… I wouldn’t know what to name a horse, Dean. Besides, she’s yours to name.”

“I’ve named hundreds of horses, Cas. It’s not a big deal.”

“I’m sure it’s a big deal to her. Names are important.”

Dean shrugged. “Then give her an important name.”

Neither of them had noticed that the rest of their company had gone quiet, too busy watching the two of them to worry about carrying on their own conversation. Cas studied the picture like he was trying to see into the horse’s very soul and draw out some kernel of its innermost essence from which to divine its name.

“All I can think is that she looks like she’s carrying the sun on her forehead.”

Dean snorted at that, and then frowned consideringly. “I guess that’s right up your alley, then, Mr. Sunshine.”

Cas nodded. “Then you should call her Heliostat.”

Sam practically choked on a bit of salmon and Dean shot him an irritated glare. He turned back to Cas to see him frowning uncertainly now, and Dean felt as if he’d been kicked in the chest by an angry mule. It was the sort of feeling he’d only ever had when Sam had been unhappy when they were kids, and Dean had felt it was his duty to make everything right again. The fact he’d felt so strongly protective over the feelings of a guy he’d known for less than two hours hit him like a bucket of cold water to the face. He was being ridiculous. Cas was a grown man who could certainly stand up for himself. He didn’t need Dean to leap to his defense. Dean took a deep breath to get himself under control and rationalized it all away.

It was still only polite to give Cas’s suggestion the consideration it deserved. Dean had pushed the guy into choosing a name for the horse in the first place, it was only right for him to hear Cas out now. Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself.

“So what’s it mean?” Dean asked after a few beats, again catching Cas glancing up at him.

“A heliostat collects the sun’s rays and focuses them into a fixed point,” Cas said, sounding less enthusiastic about his choice in names after having to explain it. “It turns constantly, always facing the sun, and reflects the light at a specific target.”

“Like a sunflower,” Dean said.

“Yes, exactly like a sunflower,” Cas replied, finally smiling again. “She looks like she’s captured the entire sun on her forehead and brought it down to the earth where we can admire it properly.”

“Sorta like your sun telescope, huh?” Dean asked, smiling back at Cas.

“Yeah, but I think after a moment of consideration that Sunflower might be a more reasonable name for a small horse to carry.”

Dean couldn’t help the bubbling of laughter that forced its way out of him at that, and he reached out and patted Cas on the shoulder. “Yeah, I think Sunflower’s a great name for a horse, Cas. Thanks.”

Very quietly, as he handed Dean’s phone back, Cas said, “I’ll probably always think of her as Heliostat anyway. Maybe she’ll grow into the name.”

Dean was certain that Cas hadn’t intended to say that out loud when he flushed at Dean’s equally quiet reply of, “I’m sure she will.”

The five of them lingered on the sidewalk outside the restaurant for a few minutes after dinner, making a more concrete plan for Hannah to visit the ranch a week later, after Sam and Eileen had a chance to settle in. She’d stay with Castiel while making the final adjustments to her blueprints, and then begin the long process of construction.

As they said their goodbyes, Dean realized that despite having swapped phones with Cas, he’d never thought to ask the man for his phone number. Then again, Cas hadn’t asked for his number either. Maybe Dean had read more into their interactions than was really there. Sam hadn’t been too far off the mark with his joke about Dean spending too much time with his horses and not enough time with human beings. The attention Cas had paid to him, his interest in Dean’s stories, had felt fantastic. It could be that he was so starved for human interaction he’d let himself believe there may have been a spark there when any normal person would’ve understood it was just Cas being a polite conversationalist.

Dammit, if that was the case then he  _ really _ needed to get out more often. And hell, even worse. Maybe Cas was just being polite to him for Hannah’s sake.

He walked a few steps behind Sam and Eileen the entire way back to their apartment, moodily kicking at pebbles and feeling a bit disappointed in himself. By the time they arrived, Dean had miraculously convinced himself to let it go. He’d need to maintain a professional relationship with Hannah for at least the foreseeable future if they were really gonna turn the ranch into a resort, and he couldn’t let himself hold his weird little unrequited crush on her brother against her. As he settled down on the couch after Sam and Eileen headed to bed, he took a little comfort from the fact that he likely wouldn’t have to face Cas all that often, or at least not anytime soon. Hopefully a little distance would give him plenty of time to get over the guy.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam and Eileen’s graduation ceremony the next day seemed to drag on and on to Dean, just like Sam’s undergrad ceremony and his high school graduation before that. It’s like they all felt obligated to give everyone a few more lectures before they finally handed over the paperwork and let you get on with your life, Dean thought uncharitably as yet another professor droned on about the untapped potential and unlimited future stretched out before the class of 2017. At long last they were all released, and Dean made his way alone through huge crowds of celebrating students surrounded by even bigger crowds of their celebrating families.

Some of the larger and more enthusiastic groups made Dean feel wholly inadequate as the sole representative of Sam and Eileen’s collective family, but at least he’d had the foresight to pick up a bouquet of flowers for Eileen and a stuffed moose wearing a cap and gown for Sam.

He spotted Sam as he neared the benches they’d agreed to meet up at after the ceremony, and was more than a little surprised to see Hannah and Castiel both already there, congratulating Sam and Eileen. He only let that fact make him feel even less adequate for a split second before he was able to rein his unruly thoughts back around. Too bad they landed directly on an even more pressing concern. So much for trying to put Cas out of his mind. Dean gave himself a mental kick, ordered himself to control his inappropriate thoughts about a man who probably wasn’t interested in him anyway, and plowed ahead through the crowd. He plastered a smile on and hurried over to present the graduates with their gifts and then hug the stuffing out of the both of them.

“So you’re officially lawyers now? I guess I gotta make a list of everyone I need to sue, huh?” he said, letting Sam go and feeling the grin on his face was entirely genuine now.

“We’re not licensed to practice until we pass the bar exam, but close enough,” Sam replied.

Dean was horrified. “You mean after all that you still gotta take another test?”

Eileen laughed at him, and he heard both Hannah and Cas chuckling behind him, so he turned to say hello, hoping his genuine happiness for Sam could sustain his smile even while tested by a direct confrontation with Castiel’s bluer than blue eyes.

“You guys came out to cheer these two on?”

Cas nodded and Hannah smiled. “Of course we did! This is a momentous occasion, and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

“You mean you wouldn’t have missed the excuse to go out for a celebratory drink afterward,” Eileen replied with a smirk.

Hannah bumped her shoulder against Eileen’s and the two women shared a knowing laugh. Dean glanced at Sam, who looked equally in on whatever the two women were reminiscing about. That left him standing in the dark with Cas. Dean risked a quick glance at the man and accepted his fate. If he and Cas were going to play fourth and fifth wheel on this three way conversation, they might as well form a strategic alliance.

“So, Cas,” he said. “You have any idea what they look so guilty about?”

Cas shook his head. “I missed Hannah’s graduation since I was attending my own graduation the same weekend, but I heard a few stories.”

“Do I wanna hear these stories, or am I happier not knowing?” Dean asked, glowering at Sam.

“Definitely happier not knowing,” Sam replied before Cas had a chance to start talking. “And, uh, lessons have been learned since then,” he added for good measure.

Dean laughed at that and turned to shrug at Cas. “I guess we have to accept that they’re all grown up into responsible and respectable members of adult society now.”

“I think we have one last irresponsible night left in us,” Sam suggested, but Eileen shut him down.

“We’ve got to start moving out tomorrow,” she reminded him. “There’s no way I’m doing that with a hangover.”

Dean kept stealing glances at Cas through this entire exchange, only to find Cas doing the same with him a time or two. He’d thought it would be hard enough to have to keep his budding feelings from springing into full bloom when he’d psyched himself up to make polite conversation with the guy for a few minutes. Now that it seemed Hannah and Cas were going to be included in whatever festivities Sam and Eileen had planned for the rest of the evening, Dean had to readjust his entire mindset when it came to Cas yet again. He was eager to spend a little more time with the intriguing and, frankly, beautiful man, but also a little bit terrified that he’d end up putting his foot in his mouth by the end of the night and ruining even a chance at befriending him. At least that gave him an excuse not to drink too much.

At the bar that Eileen and Hannah led them to, all Dean’s plans to have a drink at the most, or maybe two, went out the window.  First off, Cas had an impressive ability to consume copious quantities of alcohol without any signs of intoxication. Secondly, the bar had a pool table Dean had been eyeballing since they’d wandered in. It had been swarmed with celebrating graduates, all a little tipsy, a couple of whom were loudly challenging anyone and everyone to a game. Sam had shot Dean a warning glare, a  _ do not take advantage of the poor drunk jerks _ , but after listening to one of the idiots crowing about his winnings for the last ten minutes, Sam finally nudged Dean’s foot under the table to get his attention. After a quick but silent conversation, an exchange of meaningful glances and a stony faced nod from Sam, Dean grinned at his brother.

Dean had been squished into one side of the booth with Cas, opposite Sam, Eileen, and Hannah. He excused himself, telling the table he’d be back in about fifteen minutes. Instead of getting out of his way, Cas betrayed the first hint of drunkenness. He blinked, just once, but to Dean it looked almost like Cas was on some sort of slow motion delay. Dean clenched his teeth together  _ hard _ to keep himself from smiling like a complete sap at how adorable it was. His momentary lapse of reason gave Cas a chance to catch up. He hadn’t budged out of Dean’s way yet, but somehow Dean didn’t even care about that anymore.

“Is something wrong, Dean?” Cas asked.

Oh, right… Dean had been going to go relieve a couple of drunks who thought they were invincible of their cash.

“Nah, just felt like a game of pool,” he said, tilting his head in the direction of the aforementioned loudmouths, the loudest of whom seemed to have run out of willing opponents and had resorted to putting on a show of his skills for the crowd instead.

“I’m not sure that man’s ready to relinquish the table,” Cas replied, swaying ever so slightly as he tore his eyes from the display and refocused on Dean.

Dean merely shrugged. “He was looking for challengers a minute ago. I thought I’d offer him a little friendly competition.” He’d clearly had too much to drink to keep his face in check and gave Cas a rather flirtier wink than he’d intended, but it took a hell of a lot more alcohol than that to put Dean off his game at pool.

Sam groaned, bringing Dean back to his senses yet again. Fine, he could still blame the alcohol for why he’d nearly drowned in Cas’s eyes again, but a crack of pool balls and another kick in the shin from Sam got him moving again.

“Just go put the jerk in his place so we can actually enjoy the rest of the evening in peace, Dean,” Sam muttered.

Dean shot Sam a smirk and then glanced around at Eileen, Hannah, and then finally landed on Cas again. “You know if I take him down hard enough, we might have to leave anyway.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “If you take him down we can afford to go somewhere nicer anyway.”

“And that kind of stellar logic right there makes your fancy law degree worth every penny, Sammy.”

Sam snorted and Dean kicked him back under the table, but Cas still hadn’t moved yet. He was still studying Dean curiously, like he was an unusual sunspot Cas had discovered with his big-ass fancy telescope. Dean let him look for a few seconds more before he cleared his throat.

“So, you mind?” Dean asked.

A sudden realization dawned over Cas’s features and he scrambled out of the booth to let Dean up. “My apologies, Dean. Do you mind if I join you? I enjoy the occasional game of pool myself.” Cas swayed a bit to one side in order to cast a wicked grin at his sister over Dean’s shoulder.

Dean glanced around at Hannah and saw her returning Cas’s grin with interest, as well as an encouraging thumbs up. At least the entire table was with them, win or lose. Without thinking too hard about it, Dean slung an arm around Cas’s shoulders, hoping to play up their drunkenness as the two of them stumbled their way through the crowd to the pool table. Dean took the opportunity to lean in to Cas to work up their angle. If he happened to catch a hint of the salt and sage scent rising off Cas’s warm skin, he wasn’t about to complain.

“So, you wanna take a run at him first?”

Cas considered that for a moment while they sidestepped around a table that had erupted in a sudden burst of drunken laughter. When they’d cleared the rowdy group, Cas tilted his head close to Dean’s ear. “It’s been a while since I’ve played. My skills might be a bit rusty, but I think I can take him.”

Dean gave his shoulder a little squeeze and smiled. “That’s settled, then. Even if you lose, I can swoop in after you and clean him out.”

“I feel confident in our combined abilities,” Cas replied, giving Dean’s hip a squeeze in return, and that’s when Dean realized that Cas had had his arm draped around his waist the entire time.

Dean nearly froze in his tracks, and it was only Cas’s continued forward momentum that kept him moving. He’d been almost entirely distracted by everything about Cas, nearly to the point of-- alcohol or not-- complete drunkenness on pure essence of Castiel. His heart pounded in his chest. Dean offered Cas what he hoped looked like an encouraging little smile as he gave Dean’s hip another reassuring squeeze before sliding out from under Dean’s arm in a fluidly graceful maneuver and then staggering the rest of the way to the side of the pool table. Cas stopped a foot short of the rail, almost exactly where the current player needed to stand to make his final shot, and just stood there obliviously staring down at the eight ball. Dean could barely contain his snort of laughter, but forced himself to keep up their act. He never would’ve guessed that Cas was a natural pool shark, and he had to fight down another wave of giddiness over the revelation.

“Hey, Cas,” Dean called out. “Let the man finish his game.”

Cas listed exaggeratedly as he spun, coming face to face with the grinning visage of the loudmouth pool player himself, taking a half step back in a convincing display of surprise. “Oh! I’m sorry. I only wanted to observe. Is this too close?”

The guy laughed and tilted his head toward Dean. “I think you’d be better off standing over there with your friend, out of the way of the action.”

Cas considered the man thoughtfully and then nodded, stepping out of his way but still hovering nearby. “If no one else is willing to play, perhaps I could take a turn next?”

The man laughed again and bent over to line up his final shot, sinking the eight ball easily. “My friend, have you ever even played before?”

“A time or two back in college, yes,” Cas replied.

“Then would you like to make it interesting?” The man began racking up the balls, while a portion of the gathered crowd goaded Cas on and the rest of them tried to talk him out of it.

“What would you suggest?” Cas replied, ignoring the entire crowd, but stealing a glance over at Dean, who merely gazed rather dazedly back at him with a goofy little smile on his face.

“What do you got on ya?”

Cas pulled out his wallet and fished out two hundred dollar bills. “Is this interesting enough?” He held them up for the man to see, and then set them on the edge of the table.

“It’s a good start, but dude, I really don’t wanna steal your money. You seem a little out of your depth. Why don’t we make it a hundred for now and see how it goes?”

The crowd oohed and jeered at this, but Cas just shrugged and put one of the bills away before stuffing his wallet back in his pocket and picking up a cue stick. He stopped to wink at Dean, and then took his first shot. Dean sat back and watched Cas play. He was pretty evenly matched with the showoff, but when it came down to his final shot, Cas managed to eke out a victory. The crowd cheered appreciatively as the guy handed over the cash.

“Now I’m glad I didn’t take your first bet. That was a lucky shot.”

Cas thanked him and then Dean was suddenly swooping in. “How about double or nothin’, “ Dean said, again drunkenly draping his arm around Cas’s shoulders.

“I don’t think I like those odds,” the guy replied. “Your friend here’s pretty damn good.”

“You said he was just lucky,” Dean replied. “Maybe his luck won’t hold out.”

“It’s fine, Dean,” Cas replied. “I’m satisfied. And I think you may have had a bit too much to drink.”

Dean grinned sloppily at Cas and then let him go to take a step closer to the former loudmouth, who was now looking a little bit nervous. “Well, if you won’t double down with Cas, here, maybe you’d be willing to take my money instead?” Dean slapped a wad of cash down on the table in challenge. “Five hundred bucks. Whatta ya say?”

“You wanna play?” The guy said, sizing Dean up as the crowd went quiet.

“Dean, I really think we should get back to the table,” Cas said, glancing over to see Sam watching the entire exchange with a satisfied smirk.

“This shouldn’t take long,” Dean replied, tripping over his own feet as he went to select a cue.

“It’s your money, Dean.” Cas sighed and rolled his eyes, but retreated to the seat Dean had occupied during his game. The guy laid out his matching wager and the game began. Dean had been right, it didn’t take long. He kept up his drunken act until the final shot, when he swaggered over to snatch up his winnings. The other guy never even got to take a single shot. He just stood there open-mouthed, staring at Dean as he ran the entire table.

“Thanks for that,” Dean said, then threw his arm around Cas again and the two of them hurried back to the front of the bar. Sam, Hannah, and Eileen were already waiting for them outside, and they’d barely made it to the door before the guy started screaming about being hustled. Dean just picked up his pace, laughing as he and Cas burst through the door.

“Man, I haven’t had that much fun in ages,” Dean said, dropping his arm from Cas’s shoulders as the five of them hurried down the street. “Years.”

“This definitely beats my graduation party,” Hannah said. “We got out of there without anyone injured or under arrest.”

“Yeah, I definitely don’t wanna hear those stories,” Dean said to Cas.

They walked for about ten minutes, but every bar and restaurant they passed was filled with the same sorts of revelry as there was at the bar they’d already fled. Instead of finding someplace fancier to blow their winnings, they ended up spending hours at an all night diner eating cheeseburgers and drinking milkshakes. By the time they called it a night, Dean and Cas had sampled every flavor of pie they had to offer, and Dean was more than a little certain his crush on Cas had grown entirely out of control. He was equally certain that Cas wasn’t the least bit interested in anything more than friendship with him.

It was Cas who eventually called it a night, begging off just before midnight with the reminder to Hannah that they had a long drive ahead of them the next day. Dean considered asking Cas for his number, but he hesitated. Sure they’d had a great time and really gotten to know each other quite well. It was nearly impossible not to with their nosy siblings sitting at the table offering up dirty little secrets and embarrassing childhood stories. And even if Dean would consider both Cas and Hannah friends now, he was still technically entering a business partnership with Hannah. It would probably be unprofessional to ask her brother out on a date.

Cas might feel pressured to say yes just to help Hannah out. Or he might feel pressured to say no for the same reason. Dean had weighed all the pros and cons and decided it was just not in the cards. He wouldn’t turn Cas down if he offered, but he wasn’t gonna put the man on the spot. He had too much riding on keeping everyone happy-- but especially Sam and Eileen-- to risk fucking everything up by making the wrong move with Cas. Dean sighed and watched Cas walk out of the diner, and probably out of his life entirely.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning came far too soon for Dean. By the time he’d collapsed into bed the night before, he’d completely sobered up, and that had been about 90% of his trouble. He’d tossed and turned on Sam’s lumpy old couch, unable to stop thinking about Cas. There were only so many different ways he could replay their conversations, relive the feeling of Cas’s hand on his hip, and imagine that the glint in his eyes or the twitch at the corner of his mouth meant that Cas might have been feeling anything even remotely similar to how Dean felt about him. Every thought Dean had in the dark had led him to wonder what Cas’s hands would feel like running down his chest, or what that patch of skin just below Cas’s ear would taste like, or what noises Dean might be able to wring out of him in that rough baritone voice. It made even getting his usual four hours of sleep almost impossible.

If he’d gone to bed drunk he would’ve had an excuse for waking up feeling like shit. At least Sam had made coffee and left him a cup within easy reach. Dean groaned and sat up, blinking around the apartment as Eileen bustled around packing up the last of their things. Halfway through his cup of coffee, Sam noticed he was at least partially upright and started in with his morning person crap that Dean had largely blocked out of his memory over the last seven years that Sam had been away at school.

“As soon as you’re ready, we can go pick up the truck,” Sam said, twirling his keys around his finger.

Dean glared up at him and took another pointed sip of coffee. “It’s six in the morning, Sam. Are they even open yet?”

“It’s quarter to seven, and they open in fifteen minutes,” Sam replied. “It’ll take us that long to get there.”

Dean finished his coffee and set the mug down, where Eileen scooped it up before he could even think to ask for a refill. He heard her rinsing it out in the kitchen as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “I can be ready in five minutes if you promise to stop and let me get some more coffee and a decent breakfast on the way.”

He stood up and stretched, eyes squeezed shut in a yawn, but he didn’t have to see his brother to know that Sam was rolling his eyes.

“I already factored the obligatory food bribe into our travel time,” Sam assured him.

“That’s good,” Dean replied, grabbing up a change of clothes and heading into the bathroom to get ready.

Nine hours, three snack breaks, and a hell of a lot of grumbling later, all of Sam and Eileen’s worldly possessions had been crammed into the moving truck and the trunks of their two cars. With the work done, Dean was entirely torn between heading out on the road for home as soon as possible and finding the nearest motel and sleeping for a week. On the plus side, he was used to physical labor, and it had been an excellent distraction from dwelling on thoughts of Cas. Mostly.

Okay, he hadn’t had a lot of success with that.

“So, what’s the plan?” Dean asked as the three of them stood in the empty living room.

“I have to turn in our keys and sign a few papers,” Eileen replied. “Sam and I were gonna find a room at the first cheap motel outside the city and drive the rest of the way tomorrow. But if you want to get a head start, you don’t have to wait around for us. You know the way home,” she said, grinning at Dean.

“Are you good with that?” Dean asked, turning to his brother. “You don’t mind if I head out early?”

“As long as you promise to stop and sleep eventually. It’s a twelve hour drive, and if you’re half as beat as I am right now, I don’t want you driving my car into a ditch because you fell asleep at the wheel,” Sam replied, dangling his car keys out for Dean but giving him a stern look.

Dean snatched the keys and pulled Sam into a hug. “I swear I’ll stop when I start to get tired. I just wanna get back and see how Sunflower’s doing.”

“You’re really gonna name the horse Sunflower?” Sam asked with a teasing grin as Dean turned to hug Eileen.

“Of course I am. It’s a good name.”

“Cas will be happy to hear it,” Eileen assured him.

“Yeah, if he even remembers,” Dean muttered so low that he was sure Sam hadn’t heard him.

“Don’t forget to stop and eat,” Sam reminded him unnecessarily, as Dean’s stomach growled.

“Yeah, that’s the first item on the to do list. I guess I’ll be seeing you guys sometime tomorrow.”

Eileen nodded and Sam smiled at her. “Yeah, drive safe.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt that plastic piece of crap you call a car.”

“You’ll be thanking me for driving a plastic piece of crap every time you’re not stopping for gas,” Sam yelled after him as Dean made his way out the door with a dismissive wave over his shoulder.

Dean headed straight out of San Fran and out to the freeway. He stopped at the first nondescript mom and pop type place he passed once he’d cleared the city limits. Over a burger and a beer he went over and over the map on his phone, debating whether he’d try and make it through Los Angeles that night or if he should stop and sleep before braving that nightmare. He paid his tab and decided to press his luck. If nothing else, he hoped the LA traffic would be easier to bear in the middle of the night than first thing on a Monday morning.

It was nearing midnight by the time Dean pulled off the highway into the brightly lit parking lot of a little roadside motel. He’d made it through Los Angeles and then some, with more than half of the drive now in his rear view mirror. It was tempting to press on a little longer, but he knew with that attitude he’d end up driving until the sun was rising and he was pulling into the driveway back at the ranch. He’d promised Sam he’d rest, and he was determined to at least give it his best shot.

With nothing much else to focus on for the last six hours, his thoughts had still persistently strayed toward blue eyes and sharp wit and some far less appropriate thoughts about Cas’s graceful hands wrapped around a cue stick. He wasn’t sure sleep would come any easier than it had the night before. And on top of everything else, his body ached from half a day spent lugging boxes and furniture followed by six hours of sitting absolutely still in the car. None of it boded well for a good night’s rest.

Dean dragged himself into the lobby, working the kinks out of his back while the desk clerk swiped his credit card and handed over a room key. On his way back to the car to grab his bag, he spotted a dimly lit patio with a few rickety looking tables and chairs and a fenced-off area surrounding a secluded swimming pool and hot tub. He could practically hear his muscles crying out for a quick swim and a long soak in that tub, but he hadn’t thought to bring a swimsuit with him. He groaned and headed off to his room to reconsider all his life choices and hopefully get some rest.

 

***

 

Castiel had been ambivalent about this entire ordeal from the first time Hannah had brought it up to him. She’d been working for two years at an architectural firm in San Francisco and built up a strong portfolio there, and was suddenly ready to throw away what was shaping up into a bright future on a remote chance she could convince someone to buy into her pet project. It had seemed to Cas like too much to risk, quitting her job and making plans to move to Arizona without even having any contracts signed or guarantees in place. Hell, she hadn’t even  _ met _ the man she’d need to sell her dream project to. But it was the one dream that had seemed to fill her with life, to inspire her, since before she’d graduated. Cas couldn’t deny her the chance to see it through.

He’d flown up to San Francisco to help her in any way he could, from arranging for her furniture to be put into storage while she sublet her condo, to supporting her through meeting and negotiating with the landowner she was convinced was the perfect partner for this endeavor. She’d been friends with the man’s brother, but from everything she’d learned about him over the years, Hannah had been convinced that Dean Winchester would be a tough nut to crack. She’d practically begged for Cas to at least come to their first casual dinner meeting to help break the ice with the man. The moment Dean walked through the door, Cas knew for sure that  _ something  _ was gonna break. He just hoped it wouldn’t be  _ him _ .

Looking at Dean that first time had been like staring into the sun, and he would know since that was his job. He’d been living in Tucson since he’d graduated and taken the job at Kitt Peak two years earlier, and suddenly he was questioning all his life choices. He’d lived in the same town as this man for nearly two years and had never known it. He silently blessed and cursed Hannah in the same breath for forcing him into this bizarre meet-cute.

Getting to know Dean over the last few days had been a delight. The man wasn’t just beautiful to look at, but he was intelligent and interesting and passionate and caring as well. He’d taken the family business he’d inherited and remade it into something so uniquely his own through sheer force of will. Dean was easy to talk to, and Cas found himself falling dangerously into his orbit at a ridiculous velocity. Surely a man like that wouldn’t have any interest in a man like him.

Dean was interested in working with Hannah, or maybe he was just interested in making his brother happy. That had seemed to be a large part of his motivation for agreeing to hear Hannah’s proposal in the first place. Being courteous and friendly to Hannah’s tagalong big brother was surely just a part of that deal.

And then they’d met again, in a situation that didn’t carry the weight of a business negotiation over the entire evening. Cas couldn’t deny that Dean’s interest in him when they’d been out in a purely social and celebratory fashion the following night had felt more genuinely friendly, but Dean did seem to be a genuinely friendly man in general. They’d seemed to have had an instant connection and understanding of one another while strategizing the pool hustle, but Cas couldn’t be sure he wasn’t reading entirely too much into the glances, and especially the touches. It could’ve just as easily been part of Dean’s game; just as much of an act as the rest of his drunken hustle. Dean hadn’t thought twice about draping an arm over his shoulders and pulling him in close. He’d smelled like sunshine and leather and hay, and it surreally had Cas longing for a home he’d never even visited before. 

Cas had spent his entire life in big cities until he’d moved to the desert. He’d never thought there would be anything in that vast emptiness that could make him stop longing to return to the busy bustle of Los Angeles, but in the span of two days this man in a leather jacket who’d entrusted him to name a newborn horse and laughed with him about their fucked up childhoods, and made all of it seem perfectly normal and wonderful and good, had him eager to get back to Tucson on the off chance they might meet again independently of any professional obligation.

He found himself idly wondering over such ridiculous trivialities as where Dean did his grocery shopping, and how feasible it might be to casually loiter there until Dean turned up.

It had been the most quietly earth-shattering couple of days. Except he really didn’t have much hope of seeing Dean again, outside of hearing about him from Hannah or maybe tagging along with her to some meeting or other-- even one thinly disguised as a social event like their meetings in San Francisco were. The more he’d thought about it, the more pathetic his daydreams began to feel. The worst of it was, even if a situation arose where he saw Dean again, it would still be highly unprofessional for him to do anything about his inappropriate feelings for the man. He couldn’t do anything to put Hannah’s dream at risk.

They pulled away from Hannah’s condo just after lunch on Sunday afternoon, headed south toward LA, and then on to Tucson so she could get to work on phase one of the construction at the ranch. Cas would be able to go back to work, staring into the sun and trying his damnedest not to think about Dean. When he’d planned this trip weeks ago, he’d been looking forward to taking his time driving through his old hometown, maybe convincing Hannah to stop there for the night and not rushing to leave again the next day, lingering over breakfast, visiting his old stomping grounds. Now he was almost strangely relieved when the lights of Los Angeles faded in their rear view mirror. It definitely didn’t bode well for his resolution to forget all about Dean Winchester.

“We should stop for the night soon,” Hannah said around eight o’clock. “Get something to eat, maybe find a motel with a pool and have a swim. I’m not used to all this driving.”

Cas snorted. “You’re used to city life, Han. Everything you need within walking distance. Things are different out in the desert. An hour in the car is considered a quick trip.”

Hannah glared at him out of the corner of her eye and refocused on the road. “Seven hours in the car is still a long drive no matter where you live. I just want to stand up and stretch for a while. We might as well find a nice place to eat and then try and get some sleep.”

“Don’t you have to be on site tomorrow? We can switch off for a while if you want to get some rest.”

“Sam and Eileen won’t even be at the ranch until late tomorrow night. They wanted a day to settle in, too. I’m not meeting with them until Wednesday. We can afford to stop for the night.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Cas replied, yawning.

“Aha!” Hannah reached over and slapped his shoulder. “See, I was right. You need a break too.”

“Fine, you were right. There’s no need to gloat.”

She smiled and shook her head. “Haven’t you been sleeping well? I thought you said you were fine on the sofa.”

“It was remarkably comfortable for a sofa,” Cas replied, staring down at his hands twisting together in his lap.

“It’s still a sofa, though. I know it’s not ideal, but you should’ve said something. I offered you the bed.”

“I don’t think it would’ve made much difference,” he muttered, turning to stare out the window at the darkening sky.

Hannah was quiet for a few minutes, glancing over at him occasionally. They passed a sign listing out the amenities at the next exit, and Cas offered little more than a resigned shrug when she’d told him they were stopping there whether he liked it or not. After a few more tense moments of silence, she readjusted her grip on the steering wheel and set her shoulders, staring resolutely forward while she spoke in a rather more guarded tone.

“You’re not having second thoughts about any of this, are you? About me taking this job, or invading your space?”

It hadn’t been his intention to upset her, to make her feel like a burden. He just wasn’t sure he could clear up that misunderstanding without revealing the mess of his own wayward feelings. Cas wasn’t about to lay that blame on her in any way if he could help it. It wasn’t her fault he’d developed feelings for her new business partner.

“No. No, I’m happy for you that everything seems to be working out exactly as you’d hoped, and you’re always welcome to  _ invade my space _ . Truth be told, I’ll be glad to have your company.”

Hannah cast him a sly grin and then headed down the exit ramp into the small town. “Are you feeling so lonely down in Tucson that having your sister crash at your house is an upgrade to your social life? Is it really that hard to keep yourself entertained? Maybe I should be rethinking moving to such a dull place.”

“I thought that was why you wanted to build your dream resort there? Nothing to do for miles around except to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature.”

She snorted. “Nature is neither peaceful nor quiet, Castiel.”

“True, but it’s still very different from the sort of noise I’d been used to.”

“Aw, is that all it is? Was staying in the city after a few years out in the boondocks too much for you?”

“I suppose that could be it,” Cas said, watching the glowing signs of gas stations and fast food restaurants pass outside his window as Hannah pulled into the lot of a motel.

“Aah, see? They even have a swimming pool,” she said, getting out of the car. “I’ll go check us in. Why don’t you pick somewhere to eat and I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes.”

Cas stretched his arms up over his head, yawning as he worked the kinks out of his spine and glanced around the nearly empty parking lot. In addition to the pool, he spotted a hot tub tucked away behind a desert version of a privacy hedge-- a collection of assorted cacti and desert shrubs-- and momentarily regretted not having packed his swim trunks. Ten minutes soaking in hot water and letting the swirling jets work the knots out of his sore muscles sounded spectacular, but his thoughts quickly wandered into more dangerous territory, specifically the reckless notion of Dean joining him in the tub.

But Dean wasn’t here, and no one would begrudge him a few moments of idle fantasy. He allowed himself to imagine what Dean would look like, not only without his shirt but dripping wet and flushed from the steam. It was easy to extrapolate from what he knew first hand; the feel of Dean’s back, the curve of his waist, the muscle of his hip where he’d held him the night before and maybe let himself take inappropriate advantage of the opportunity to touch Dean, to gravitate a little too far into his personal space.

“So, Cas, where to?” Hannah said, snapping him out of his reverie.

Cas cleared his throat, tore his gaze from the secluded pool and quickly looked up and down the road at the few restaurants within walking distance of their motel, studiously avoiding glancing at Hannah in the process, since she might be the one person in the world who would begrudge his possibly not-quite-so-idle fantasies. “I suppose one fast food outlet is the same as the next. Whatever’s closest is fine with me.”

Hannah stared him down but Cas refused to give in. Finally she gave up and sighed, shoving a plastic key card at Cas. “I guess you’re right. It’s been a long couple of days. We should just eat so you can hopefully get some sleep. We’re halfway out into the desert here, and I even sprung for you to have your own room so you can have some peace and quiet, and maybe get some decent sleep.”

“I appreciate that,” Cas replied, taking the key card and smiling at his sister. “It wasn’t really necessary to go to that expense.”

“Stop it,” she said, punching him on the shoulder. “It’s not the penthouse at the Plaza. I can afford one extra room at the Oasis Inn in downtown nowheresville.”

“Can you afford the best cheeseburger nowheresville has to offer?”

Cas grinned and held out his arm, and Hannah linked hers around it. After asking around and strolling up and down the main drag, it turned out the best cheeseburger in the little town happened to be at the diner directly across from their motel. Dinner was good, but Hannah was visibly tired after a long day driving. They agreed to let each other sleep as long as they wanted the next morning since they weren’t in any real hurry. After a lazy stroll back to the motel, Cas tried settling into his room just down the hall from Hannah’s.

While it was far quieter than Hannah’s condo in San Francisco had been, the noise outside had never really been Cas’s problem. Over dinner, Hannah had sketched out a rough diagram of the Winchesters’ property on the back of her placemat, excitedly showing Cas everything she wanted to build there. He’d nodded along politely, trying to envision the place where Dean lived, and wondering how the man truly felt about his home being invaded to this degree. Dean had seemed like a very private person, considering the rather isolated nature of his work and the fact he’d bought up thousands of acres surrounding his ranch just to keep it from being developed. And now here they were, planning to turn his home into a commercial property, inviting a never-ending stream of strangers to his front door.

Cas spent a solid hour thinking that if he’d been in Dean’s position, he never would’ve agreed to any of it. Then again, Dean’s people skills were a lot less rusty than his. Maybe Dean would enjoy the company, even if it came in the form of people he’d never truly get to know before they packed up their bags and went back to their regular lives.

He was still tossing and turning more than an hour later. If he were at home, he’d have gone for a run to tire himself out, but he lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, his earlier thoughts about the pool inconveniently and persistently making themselves known again. After a several attempts to banish the thoughts entirely, he reluctantly admitted that he could probably get away with swimming a few laps in his boxers. It was late and there were few other guests at the hotel to pay him any mind. If the swim didn’t help him burn off all his pent-up energy, then maybe a dip in the hot tub would help relax him enough to get to sleep. It was worth a shot.

He flung off the blankets and grumbled at himself about remembering to pack swim trunks next time he traveled anywhere. At least he was wearing a decent pair of boxers that wouldn’t go transparent underwater. He wrapped a slightly-too-small towel around his waist just in case and then made his way out toward the pool.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had spent a grand total of five minutes debating whether or not to take advantage of the hot tub before making the executive decision that it was late at night and the motel was a veritable ghost town. Good sense be damned, he was gonna enjoy himself. If everything went according to Sam and Hannah’s plans, it might be the last time he’d be well and truly alone for the foreseeable future. Hell, maybe even longer.

He’d stocked up his cooler with fresh ice and the beer he’d picked up hours ago was plenty cold. He grabbed it and a couple of towels on the way out the door before he could talk himself out of going out at all.

The pool area was relatively secluded, but the smaller patio surrounding the hot tub was all but invisible from the rest of the motel behind a scrubby thicket of cactuses and a couple of scraggly shrubs. The few dim lights around the pool patio barely even touched the darkness surrounding the hot tub. If he hadn’t seen it earlier from the other side of the parking lot, he’s not sure he even would’ve noticed it was there now.

He dropped the cooler at the edge of the tub, glanced around to make sure nobody had wandered over to see what he was up to, and then quickly stripped off his clothes. Dean pulled one cold beer out of the cooler, twisted off the cap and took a fortifying gulp before easing himself into the hot water. He didn’t even bother turning the knob that would start the jets yet, letting himself get used to the temperature first. A minute later he was relieved he hadn’t when he heard the pool gate creak open and clang shut.

Dean had a moment of panic, hoping whoever was out there wouldn’t find him sitting alone in the dark in his underwear. Maybe they’d just turn back around and leave if he was quiet. He was torn between wanting to huddle down like a hare in the underbrush and trying to get a peek at whoever was out there. A few seconds later, whoever it was out there waded into the pool with barely a splash, almost as if they were trying to be as covert as Dean was. He leaned back, taking a few tentative swigs of his beer while listening to the stranger swim a few quiet laps.

It was a little disappointing that he couldn’t turn on the jets for fear of being discovered, but Dean found the combination of hot water, good beer, and the gentle rhythmic splashing of the mystery swimmer to be relaxing enough on their own. By the time he’d finished his first beer, the splashing had slowed. He silently hoped the swimmer was done for the night and would go back to their room soon. It’s not that they were bothering him, per se, just maybe keeping him from being able to fully appreciate all that the hot tub had to offer.

Dean debated whether or not to risk getting himself another beer, or if that would make enough noise to draw attention to himself. He sighed and set his empty bottle down on the rough concrete beside the cooler, where it promptly fell over and rolled half a dozen feet, clattering and clanking the whole way. Dean gritted his teeth and winced, sure he’d be discovered now and probably kicked out for public indecency, or whatever else the motel decided to do to idiots who thought they could get away with swimming in their skivvies after hours.

The mystery swimmer froze for a moment, and then Dean heard a loud splash as the person climbed out of the pool. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but a moment later a towel-clad man stepped around the privacy hedge and Dean nearly had a heart attack.

“Cas?”

The other man’s eyes practically bulged out of his head for a split second, and he nearly lost the towel he’d been clutching around his waist. Dean took in the glorious sight of a dripping wet Cas, from his strong legs to his broad shoulders and everything in between, sparing only a moment’s thought for what the skimpy towel was keeping hidden. What were the chances the two of them would end up at the same motel in the middle of nowhere, with the same notion to go for a covert late-night swim? Beyond astronomical, Dean thought and managed to mostly contain the absurd little laugh at that.

“Hello, Dean,” Cas replied, reevaluating and recalculating his previous fantasies about what he’d do with Dean in that very hot tub now that he had a more accurate rendering of a mostly naked and sopping wet Dean to work with. These circumstances were entirely unaccounted for in those imaginary calculations, though, so instead of following through he was left with little more than awkward small talk. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Dean cleared his throat while Cas stood dripping at the side of the tub staring down at him. “I was, uh, gonna say the same. This is definitely something, ain’t it?”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“So, do you… would you like a beer?” Dean asked, reaching for his cooler, which required him to kneel up at the side of the tub. He probably flashed a little more of himself than he’d have otherwise intended, but when he turned back around and held the bottle out to Cas, the man accepted it with a smile.

“Thank you, Dean. Do you mind…” Cas waved his free hand at the water, and Dean nodded, wide eyed.

“Yeah, sure, man. Knock yourself out. Or at least that was the idea when I came out here.”

“You couldn’t sleep either?” Cas asked, dropping his towel and carefully stepping into the tub, settling himself opposite Dean.

“Nah,” Dean replied, grinning at the fact that Cas also seemed to lack appropriate and approved swimwear. “It’s been a crazy couple days. I figured this might help me unwind enough to knock off for a few hours, but then some creeper decided to go for a swim and scare the crap outta me.”

“I’m sorry if I frightened you, but I assure you I wasn’t trying to be a creeper,” Cas said, taking a sip of his beer.

Dean laughed. “Yeah, I know. I just didn’t wanna get caught out here for public indecency or whatever, but I guess I’m in good company, eh?”

Cas squinted at him curiously, and then glanced down to confirm that no, Dean wasn’t naked. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed by that. Although now that they’d both been made aware of their identical state of inappropriate undress, the tension practically shot through the roof. And they were currently outdoors where the roof was nothing but the glittering vault of the heavens. The steam or maybe the alcohol must be getting to him, Cas guessed as he shook his head to clear away those thoughts. There was nothing more to this entire situation than a stunning cosmic coincidence. The entire universe must’ve been having a great laugh at his expense.

The two of them sat there for a few moments, drinking their beer in an awkward, if companionable silence. Cas had considered several lines of inquiry, from the mundane  _ how about this weather _ to the specific. Dean ended up breaking first.

“So how are things going with your sister? She’s gonna be staying with you for the foreseeable future, right?”

Cas hummed and sipped his beer. “Yes, it’ll be good to have her around. We’ve only seen each other sporadically over the last few years.”

Dean nodded and picked at the label on his own bottle. “Yeah, I know how that is. Sammy’s been off at Stanford for the last seven years. Kid only comes home a couple times a year.”

“And now he’s coming back to completely upheave your entire life,” Cas replied, smirking at Dean before taking another gulp of his beer.

Dean laughed, and then shrugged. “I figure it’s worth it if he plans to stay this time. I can live with a few changes.”

“Hannah sketched out her vision for your property, and I must say I’m surprised you’d so readily allow a virtual stranger to impose such a radical change to your home and your lifestyle.”

Dean snorted and shook his head, taking another sip of beer. “Sammy’s not a virtual stranger. Neither’s Eileen. And if they trust your sister and they believe in her plans, then I got no right to stand in their way. The ranch is just as much Sam’s home as it is mine. I got my run of it for the last thirty years. I guess it’s his turn now. Besides, I still get to keep doing my thing, raising my horses. The second anything gets in the way of that I’ll put my foot down. But long as I got them to take care of, I figure I’ll be fine.”

Cas nodded along to everything Dean said, feeling himself crack just a little more under the weight of it. He was beginning to understand why people termed these feelings a  _ crush _ . He shoved it all down, since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it anyway. “That’s admirable of you, Dean.”

Dean shrugged. “I guess, but I mean, you’re giving up your personal space too, here. Letting Hannah live with you for the duration. Don’t you have a life, too?”

Cas laughed. “I have the world’s largest solar telescope, I run at least three times a week, and on Thursdays I do laundry. That’s about the extent of my social life. I suppose it’ll be good for me to have Hannah around prodding me to do more things just for fun.”

“Heh,” Dean replied, shifting his shoulders against the side of the tub, mightily resisting the urge to ask about his romantic prospects or dating history. It wasn’t any of Dean’s business anyway, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t at least be friendly. “Well if you ever get the chance, if it’s the sorta thing you might think is fun, you know, you’re always welcome to come out and meet Sunflower, since you named her and all.”

“I think I’d like that very much,” Cas replied, his features softening into a smile. “You’re really going to name her Sunflower?”

“Already done,” Dean replied. “I’d show you some more pictures Cesar sent me this afternoon, but…” he trailed off, pointing at the water to explain why he didn’t have his phone handy.

“I understand. Wrong time, wrong place.”

A pang of regret surged through him at Cas’s words, because he’d let it happen again. He’d let himself enjoy Cas’s company a little too much. In every way, everything about the feelings he was developing for Cas could be summed up and strangled under the banner of  _ wrong time, wrong place _ . Dean pasted on the best smile he could muster and stood up to pull out a couple more beers, offering another one to Cas. “While we’re here, may as well make the best of it.”

Cas reached out for the bottle and let his fingers slide over Dean’s before taking it from him. In a moment of daring impulse, he shifted halfway around the tub until he could reach the timer that turned on the jets, twisting it as far as it would go. It would give them fifteen minutes, and then Cas swore that whatever else happened, he’d force himself to walk away when the time was up. “As you said, we should make the best of it.”

Dean smiled and repositioned himself so the jets of water hit him square in the back, groaning as the hot water pounded the knots out of his aching muscles. He took another drink and then let his arms rest along the edge of the tub, sliding lower to let the jets soothe his upper back, his eyes closing and head tipping back as he relaxed.

Cas watched Dean unwind, staring frozen like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He bit his lip to hold back a groan of his own, keeping his breathing steady and even. When Dean finally settled, he took a deep breath and proceeded to wriggle around until he found the perfect position, jets perfectly aligned against both of his shoulders and his legs stretched out, nearly floating in the hot, steamy water. He let his eyes slip shut until he felt something bump up beneath his floating legs.

“Sorry, man,” Dean said, sitting up a little more and pulling his legs back. “Didn’t mean to Swamp Thing you there.”

Cas let out a little whine and rolled his head back to check the timer. Only five minutes left. “It’s fine, Dean. I suppose I’d drifted off anyway, and our time’s almost up. This has been very relaxing.”

There it was again; wrong place, wrong time.

“Yeah.” Dean cleared his throat. “Yeah, I guess we can’t just stay out here all night, right?”

Cas tried to convince himself that the strange hint of longing and regret in Dean’s voice was wholly the product of his own imagination. This entire prospect would be so much easier to deal with if he could keep believing that Dean wasn’t interested in anything more than friendship.

They sat in silence, finishing their drinks until the timer clicked off and the water slowly stilled again. That’s about when the uncomfortable reminder that they had to get out of the water hit them both.

“So, uh,” Dean started, tossing his empty bottle into the cooler for an excuse to turn his back until he could get the situation in his shorts under control. Who knew that one accidental touch under the water, one quick brush against Cas’s well-muscled legs, could’ve set his mind running off down such dangerous roads? He’d let himself have those five minutes because it was probably all he’d ever get, but he hadn’t thought ahead to how to make his exit without his arousal being so blatantly on display. So not the right way to make a platonic offer of friendship to his business partner’s brother.

In a fit of panic, he scrambled out of the tub and grabbed for one of the towels he’d brought, struggling to get the thing wrapped around his waist. He looked down at himself, but the flimsy towel only seemed to accentuate his problem. He snatched up the second towel and dried his hands and arms enough to fish his phone out of his jeans, quickly setting up a new entry in his contacts for Cas.

While he was distracted, Cas took the opportunity to climb out and hastily dry himself off. The chilly desert breeze helped cool him down and drag his thoughts back to safer territory than vividly contemplating the feel of Dean’s skin against his. He tried running through calculations of solar prominences, and when that failed he tried mentally retracing the route he’d jogged Friday morning around Palo Alto, trying to focus on recalling all the landmarks along the way. He’d got as far as the library building at Stanford before Dean pulled him out of his thoughts again.

“So if you want, I can text you these pictures of Sunflower,” Dean said.

Cas turned around to see Dean standing in the shadowy corner of the hot tub deck where he’d left his clothes, a towel tied tightly around his hips with another draped over his arm. He was holding his phone out toward Cas, his face a careful mask of nonchalance. Cas swallowed hard and edged his way around the tub to take the phone and program in his number. The new contact form already said  _ Cas _ when he took the phone from Dean and punched in his number. He clicked the button to save the information and then handed the phone back, again letting his fingers linger against Dean’s. He was astonished at his own daring, all things considered.

“I’d like that very much, Dean. Or, you know, feel free to contact me any time. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you over the last few days. I… I really would like to see your property before it’s developed. If that would be okay with you, I mean.”

Somehow they’d shifted closer together. Maybe it was some unconscious huddling against the brisk wind that had picked up, or the drop in temperature against their overheated skin, but they found themselves standing face to face in the shadows. Dean tore his eyes away from Cas’s long enough to glance down at his mouth before licking his lips and huffing out a breath.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Dean said quietly, and then cleared his throat.

Cas was about ninety percent certain that Dean was about to lean in for a kiss, and it was almost too much to bear. The tension between them skyrocketed, and for some inexplicable reason Cas reached up and rested his hand on Dean’s shoulder. Dean’s eyes slipped shut at the contact and a look of profound relief passed over his face. A moment later their lips were pressed together and all at once nothing else mattered.

Dean’s hand came to rest on Cas’s hip and then someone moaned, which began a cascade of rapidly falling boundaries. Hands explored skin as they pressed together, heedless of the fact they were still technically standing mostly naked and dripping wet in a public place until Cas’s fingers slid down Dean’s back low enough to dislodge the edge of the towel around his waist. The reminder of where they were brought them both crashing back to reality.

They each took a half step back, blinking at one another in quiet astonishment, before coming to a second jarring conclusion. They couldn’t do this, they were both absolutely sure of that fact.

“That was…” Dean started and then trailed off, because as much as he knew he should put a stop to this, the only words that were currently coming to mind were  _ awesome _ , and  _ incredible _ , and  _ so much better than I’d been imagining _ . And yeah, while they were all true, none of them were things he was allowed to feel about this man. It wasn’t much of a consolation that Cas looked about as wrecked as he felt.

Cas just nodded, half dazed, and merely replied with a quiet and resigned, “I know.” He smiled a little sadly at Dean, wished him goodnight, and headed back to his room.

Dean stood and watched him go. They had their miraculous fifteen minutes, but now it was time to get back to reality. Back in his room, Dean showered to wash the scent of chlorine off his skin. There was no washing the feel of Cas’s hands off, or the taste of his skin, or the sound of his voice, and if Dean’s shower had taken a few minutes longer than necessary while he burned all of that into his memory then nobody needed to know about it anyway.

He wasn’t sure if it would still be welcome, but once he was in bed he texted Cas the pictures he’d promised, along with a simple message wishing Cas a good night and a safe drive home. Dean stared at his phone for a few minutes after he sent the final text, wondering if Cas would even acknowledge the messages before sighing, setting his phone on the nightstand and shutting off the light. He’d just started drifting off when his phone buzzed with a new message.

_ Thank you, Dean. She’s beautiful. Good night. _

The three little dots at the bottom of the screen continued to blink, so Dean waited to see if Cas was sending another message. It felt like hours went by before Cas finally sent something more.

_ I’ll talk to you soon. _

Dean debated whether or not to reply. He’d wondered if the way Cas had left him on the pool deck had been a dismissal, and he would’ve accepted it as such if Cas hadn’t replied. Cas was clearly leaving the door open for  _ something _ , but that last message also read to Dean like a request for a little time and space. He could give him that, if it’s what Cas wanted.

He dithered for a few minutes over whether sending something like, “Whenever you’re ready,” sounded too eager before finally typing in a reply and hitting send.

_ Any time, Cas. _


	7. Chapter 7

As usual, Dean was up before dawn. He was conveniently on the road home before he’d have to worry about running into Cas again. It was one thing to have to deal with the memory of their kiss-- even when he was able to think about what had transpired between them in such a diminishing term as  _ their kiss _ , because that didn’t even come  _ close _ \-- but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to paste on a smile and try to pretend it had never happened while facing Cas in the cold light of day. Right then it was easier just to run away from all of it.

Dean was back at the ranch in time to witness another miraculous birth. When he pulled Sam’s car up the driveway and parked it beside his old Impala, Jesse came running out of his office to let him know one of the barn cats was delivering kittens in the hay loft. Dean didn’t spare another thought for anything else before he climbed up with an old blanket and a bowl of water and helped Meg get comfortable while she brought three mewling babies into the world. Without thinking twice, he snapped a picture of the happy little family and sent it off to Cas, with the message,  _ Just another day on the ranch. Got back just in time to see ‘em born. They’re about ten minutes old. _

Cas replied a few minutes later,  _ How did you get home so quickly? _ Followed a few moments later with,  _ Hannah insisted on seeing what had caused me to produce such an uncharacteristically high-pitched noise, and then nearly crashed the car cooing over how tiny they are _ .  _ I believe she will insist on seeing them when she meets with you later this week. I felt I should give you fair warning. _

Dean laughed, a bubbling warmth filling his chest. Maybe everything could be okay between them, given enough time.

Over the next few days there wasn’t much time for anything, between Sam and Eileen arriving that night and then moving most of their belongings into a spare room in the bunkhouse for storage until they were able to eventually build their own cottage. In the meantime, they all settled into their new routine, working around each other in Dean’s house. Sam and Eileen squeezed into Sam’s old room, while Dean let them make their office space in the small room that had been his childhood bedroom before he’d moved into the master suite years ago.

While Sam and Eileen got settled in, Dean went right back to working the ranch the way he always had. The only difference was that now he had someone calling him in for dinner at a reasonable hour instead of making work for himself around the barn until he’d resigned himself to calling it a night. Their second night back, Garth and Bess invited everyone for a cookout at the fire pit by the bunkhouse. Dean had been tempted to suggest Sam give Hannah a call to invite her and Cas over, but he figured things might still be awkward between them. It had been enough to introduce Eileen to a typical Winchester family gathering, with Garth and Bess, Jesse and Cesar, Jody, Alex, and Donna all in attendance and eager to get to know her better. The only time Eileen had visited before had been over Christmas break, and somehow they all hadn’t managed to get together like this with various family obligations keeping most of them busy elsewhere. Just as Dean and Sam had expected, Eileen fit right into their little family of choice.

The next morning was Hannah’s first scheduled visit, and Dean had been out in the barn since before dawn, finally saddling up one of the horses and taking her out for a run. He’d needed to work out his anxiety, and the rhythm of Jericho’s hooves carrying him over familiar terrain while the sun beat down on his back and the wind tried to steal his breath was the best antidote he knew for nerves. Dean knew every inch of Winchester 275, and in only a few hours he’d be signing up for something that he feared might irrevocably change all of that.

About a mile out from the barn, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He slowed Jericho to a trot and carefully fished it out, and nearly dropped it when he saw a new message from Cas. After the kitten picture exchange, Dean had forced himself to wait for Cas to initiate any further contact. For some reason he was surprised Cas hadn’t made him wait long at all. He opened the message thread and saw a spectacular photo of the desert with several messages below it.

_ >>The view from my office. Well, the view from the roof, at any rate. If you’re outside, turn toward Kitt Peak and wave. I might be able to see you from here. _

Dean laughed at that and quickly tapped out a reply.

_ <<Don’t you have the world’s biggest telescope or some shit? Just point it over this way and you’ll see me waving from the back of a big black horse. The horse won’t be waving. _

Cas replied just a few seconds later.

_ >>It’s a solar telescope, Dean. Unless you’re glowing, I wouldn’t be able to see you through it anyway. _

_ << Why are you on the roof, Cas? _

_ >>Inspecting the heliostat. _

Dean froze for a second, and then hastily replied before he could talk himself out of it. He was probably crossing a line, but he really couldn’t resist.

_ <<You mean inspecting the Sunflower? _

There was a few minutes where Dean was convinced Cas wasn’t going to reply again, but then he received another photo from deep within the base of the huge telescope, Cas partially visible in the lower corner giving the camera a goofy grin.

_ <<You took a selfie with your telescope? _

Dean quickly turned the camera around and snapped a picture of himself with the back of Jericho’s head and the rocky trail the horse had continued along while Dean had been distracted. He sent it off before Cas had a chance to reply.

_ <<The view from my office. _

He waited again.

_ >>I would very much like to meet your office. _

Dean laughed again. He had no idea what it was about Cas that made him so damn giddy, but he was relieved he hadn’t wrecked it all that night at the motel. He vowed then and there that no matter what else happened, he wouldn’t risk losing Cas again, even if it meant giving up any shot at something more with him. He’d take Cas any way he could have him, and he’d be grateful.

By the time Dean made it back to the barn, Hannah had arrived. Cesar was waiting for him with a stern look, like knew Dean would use the horse as an excuse to put off his meeting a little longer. He took Jericho’s reins and sent Dean on his way back to the house. Dean had tried to protest, but Cesar wasn’t having it.

“You need to take care of your business.”

“This horse is my business, Cesar.”

Cesar had just raised an eyebrow and stared him down while gently stroking Jericho’s neck.

Dean sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath as he stalked off. “Not fair to turn the creepy horse whisperer shit on me, dude. Not fair.”

Dean found Sam, Eileen, and Hannah sitting around the kitchen table. Spread across the huge wooden surface were a collection of blueprints and full-color artistic renderings of half a dozen different buildings. The drawing on top of the pile looked familiar to Dean, but he’d only seen a smaller-scale photocopied version of it before.

“Wow, that’s a lot fancier than it looked in the drawing you sent me, Sammy,” Dean said, pouring himself a cup of coffee and taking a seat across the table from Hannah.

She smiled up at him. “I was worried about sending you the rough sketches. I wasn’t sure the full effect really translated.”

Dean laughed. “Yeah, but if you’d sent everything, I probably would’ve been too intimidated to agree to all of this.”

“I guess it worked in my favor, then,” she replied with a smirk.

They got down to business after that, discussing everything from the estimated timeline of the entire project, to the finances, to the impact of both construction and then the eventual opening of the guest facilities on Dean’s day-to-day operations of the ranch, Dean’s requirements for maintaining the comfort and health of his animals through the entire process, and a few ground rules about what was absolutely off limits for consideration. For one thing, Dean completely rejected the idea of installing a golf course, now or at any time in the future. Nearly everything else he’d be open to discussion on.

“Why don’t you all show me around then. I'll need to take some measurements and photos so I can work up the final blueprints for the contractors, and I can give you a better idea of what your home will look like when I’m done with it,” Hannah said once she’d covered all the boring details. She pulled out a camera and a strange red and black device that Dean thought looked like some sort of sci fi ray gun.

“You’re not planning on shooting my horses with that thing, are you?” he asked as Sam led them all out to the wide expanse of hard-packed dirt that served as both driveway, staging area, and turnaround for the numerous trucks and horse trailers that came through the ranch.

Hannah just laughed and showed Dean the screen on the device. “It’s a laser, but it only measures distance. It’s a lot easier than crawling around with a tape measure.” She pointed it at the side of the barn and pulled the trigger. “See? A hundred and thirty seven feet.”

“Huh, well that’s handy,” Dean said. “So, where do you wanna start?”

“Our house will be back behind those trees,” Eileen said, pointing off to one side of Dean’s house. “We were thinking the main guest building should be set back from our houses and the working parts of the ranch.”

Sam shot Dean a look that Dean interpreted as  _ tell me if it’s not okay _ , and then cleared his throat. “Yeah, we were thinking maybe out in the old paddock, closer to the road.”

Dean turned around, gazing off down the long dirt road leading up to their house from the highway. They hadn’t used the old paddock as a paddock since he’d started buying up land and shifting their focus from cattle to horses. The much smaller herd of cattle they’d kept now occupied what used to be their neighbor’s land, out beyond the horse training arena and bunkhouse. It was far more convenient for bringing the cattle into the ring for training purposes, and they hadn’t needed the space the old paddock had afforded the far larger herd they’d kept in the past.

“Yeah,” Dean said, after a few minutes considering it, trying and failing to imagine Hannah’s elegant building sitting in the middle of an abandoned cow pasture. “I guess that could work.”

He’d been about to lead Hannah down there to shoot her fancy laser around, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. When he turned to see what the trouble was, she bit her lip and gave him a contrite look, shooting an awkward glance toward Jesse standing in the nearby doorway to the barn.

“Cas may have mentioned that your cat had kittens the other day, and I was wondering if I might be able to see them…”

She trailed off as she heard Jesse laughing, and then calling out as he waved his hand. “Right this way, ma’am. I was about to go check on Meg anyway.”

“That’s Jesse, our resident vet,” Dean said, escorting Hannah to the barn. “Jesse, this is Hannah Novak.”

Jesse smiled and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Hannah. If you ever need anything while you’re here and the boss man isn’t around, you’ll usually find me and Cesar in the barn.”

At the sound of his name, Cesar appeared from where he’d been tending to a horse farther inside the barn. Another round of introductions ensued before Hannah followed Jesse up the ladder to the loft. He checked the kittens and refreshed Meg’s food and water while Hannah tried to keep her squeals of delight to the bare minimum so as not to freak out the kittens. By the time they came back down, Dean was pretty sure that Hannah had earned herself an honorary place in the family, at least in Jesse’s book.

“But how do you feel about horses?” Dean asked, leading her over to the stall where Sunflower and Jude were waiting to be released into the corral for the day.

Hannah peered into the stall and noticed the white star on the young foal’s forehead, and turned to Dean with wide eyes. “Is this Sunflower?”

Dean grinned and nodded.

“Oh dear,” Hannah said, holding her hand out toward the horse. It came over and nuzzled her palm, allowing her to scratch its forehead. “Castiel is going to be upset that I got to meet her before he did. He hasn’t stopped talking about this horse all week.”

Dean had been surprisingly comfortable around Hannah all morning. The anxiety that had driven him out on his early morning ride through the desert had never rematerialized, at least not until Hannah had mentioned her brother. All the awkwardness Dean had been concerned about before Cas had texted him out of the blue suddenly rose up and threatened to overwhelm him. Hannah must have noticed the tension in him, but he was grateful that she’d misinterpreted its cause. She smiled apologetically at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that. It’s not very professional of me to suggest inviting my brother along to our business meetings just so he can visit your horse.”

Dean did his best to contain his grin. “Well, you already invited yourself to my hay loft to visit my kittens. I think professional’s already gone out the window. Honestly, that’s the way I prefer it, anyway. The animals come first here, and the people who get that are our kinda people.”

“Okay, then, would you mind--” Hannah juggled her camera and her laser measuring gun thing until she could pull her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Dean. “Would you mind taking a picture of me with Sunflower, then? I want to send it to Cas. Make him jealous.”

Dean snorted, but did as she asked. She sent the picture and then cackled when Cas sent his reply a few moments later.

“What’d he say?” Dean asked as they walked down the driveway toward the old paddock.

Hannah just kept laughing and showed Dean her phone screen. A picture of Cas’s face, looking melodramatically heartbroken and borderline horrified, filled the screen. Dean had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

“Well, you’ll just have to bring him over for a visit,” Sam said, as if it was all just that simple.

Hannah measured out the field, making slight changes to the calculations in a small notebook, and then pacing off the entire area so they would have a better idea of the layout of the entire guest complex, as she’d begun calling it.

After a stop back at the house for a quick lunch, Dean took her on a tour of the rest of the ranch, from the hay barn to the old well, the bunkhouse, the riding ring, and the outdoor paddocks. He introduced Hannah to Garth and Bess, and to Alex who was training a few of their yearlings with Cesar.

“You run this whole place with just a handful of employees?” Hannah had asked after seeing the entire operation.

Dean shrugged. “A few of Bess’s cousins work here too, but they’re long gone by this time of day. They take care of maintenance and feed, but they prefer working overnight.”

“That still seems like a very small number of people,” Hannah said. “It’ll take a lot more hands just to keep this place running once the guest house is ready, not even counting the number of visitors passing through. It’s going to be a big change for you.”

“You giving me one last chance to back out?” Dean asked, as they made their way back to Hannah’s car.

She just shrugged and nodded.

Dean smiled at her. “Nah. This is what Sam wants. I’ll just have to get used it being a little more crowded around here.”

Hannah looked out at the vast desert beyond Dean’s house and laughed. “It would take a heck of a lot more people than I ever plan on bringing out here to qualify as  _ crowded _ .”

“Maybe we have different definitions of a crowd,” Dean suggested. “Maybe you should start bringing a few extra people along with you when you visit to get me used to the idea.”

She gave him a funny look at that, but then smiled. “I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to convince Cas to help out with that.”

Dean tried to contain the surge of happiness at that thought, but ended up having to pass it off as a laugh that didn’t quite ring true. “Well, he’s welcome out here any time. Maybe the two of you would be interested in coming by for a riding tour of the rest of the ranch.”

They set up a tentative plan for Hannah to return with Cas on Saturday, barring any objection from Cas, and then she made her goodbyes. Dean watched her leave through the cloud of dust kicked up by her wheels and then headed straight back to the barn. The last thing he needed was to have to face Sam and Eileen, and all their eager questions, while he was having a minor crisis about the possibility of seeing Cas again in just a few days. Yeah, it was definitely too soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Hannah arrived back at Cas’s little house and got straight to work with the last minute changes to her blueprints and finalizing all the details with the contractor she’d chosen. She’d just hung up the phone, having scheduled the groundbreaking for the following Monday, when she heard Cas’s car pull up in the driveway. She sent a quick text off to Sam letting him know the first phase of construction was a go and dropped her phone to the desk as Cas walked through the front door.

“Hi, Castiel. Did you have a nice day at work?”

He shot her a squinty glare which only made her laugh. “I was having a lovely day until you not only got between me and a clutch of kittens, but then beat me to meeting  _ my own horse _ . How could you?”

“Aw, brother,” she said, making her way around the cluttered desk to lay a consoling hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to meet her on Saturday. Dean’s invited us both over for a ride around the property.”

“By  _ ride _ , I assume you don’t mean in some sort of vehicle.”

“A horse is technically a form of conveyance,” she insisted half-heartedly. “The ranch is spectacular though, if a little bleak. The desert takes some getting used to.”

Cas huffed at that. “The desert may be a bit alien, and not the lushly landscaped hills of Northern California, but bleak is a rather strong term.”

Hannah smiled softly at him. “You like it here.”

“It grows on you,” he replied, walking off toward his room.

When he was gone, Hannah sat on the sofa long enough to let Cas think she’d dropped the subject, and then called out to him. “You complained to me about the heat and the landscape at least once a week for the last two years.”

Cas returned barefoot, wearing a soft grey t-shirt and his most comfortable jeans. He glared at his sister, but she didn’t give him a chance to object.

“I know you love your job, and that’s the only reason you’ve tolerated living here so long. So what suddenly had the power to change your mind about living in the, and I quote  _ barren hellscape so awful that even all the plants are out to kill you _ ?”

“I only said that after I tripped while running and landed in a jumping cholla.”

Hannah laughed at him and Cas grumbled and stomped off to the kitchen for a beer.

“I had to pull hundreds of spines out of my arm and side. It was like being attacked by a gang of evil hybrid porcupine-tribbles. Stop laughing or I’ll make sure you get a first-hand demonstration of how terrible they are.”

“Fine, fine,” she replied, forcing herself under control again. “But something must’ve convinced you that the entirety of Arizona wasn’t a blight on the map. Did you meet someone?”

Cas rolled his eyes and took a pull of his beer, settling back into his armchair. “Why is a romantic entanglement always your first assumption when my opinion on anything changes even in the slightest?”

“Because I know you, Cas. You don’t change your opinions lightly.”

“Nor do I engage in romantic entanglements lightly,” he countered.

It was Hannah’s turn to roll her eyes. “Maybe if you’d stopped thinking about interpersonal relationships as  _ entanglements _ , you’d be more inclined to let yourself have a little fun. Like with Anna.”

“I saw Anna twice before she tried to convince me to drop out of school and travel the world with her,” Cas said with a sigh of frustration. “And while it may have been  _ fun _ for a while, I don’t think there was any sort of sustainable, lifelong relationship to be had there.”

“You were 23, Cas. You could’ve at least entertained the idea of taking a summer off to travel.”

“I had an internship at Mount Haleakala that summer. The work I did there is the main reason I got the job at Kitt Peak.”

“I know you love your job, but is it worth giving up everything else in your life for?”

“You mean the way you just gave up everything in your life and moved almost nine hundred miles for the sake of a project that means the world to you?”

Hannah smiled softly at him. “It’s not the same thing at all, and you know it. I had a job I loved back in San Francisco. My dream job, really. Coming here to build a resort is my version of a wild and reckless backpacking-around-Europe summer fling.”

Cas sat there picking at the label on his beer bottle and, entirely against his will, thinking about Dean Winchester. He had one paranoid moment to wonder if Hannah had gleaned that fact from his mind when she finally spoke again.

“While I’m living here, I’m going to ensure you at least have some regular social interaction, even if it’s just with the Winchesters. You’re coming with me Saturday, and you  _ will _ enjoy yourself. Understood?”

“Yes, mom.”

She smirked at him and shook her head. “You can even meet your horse. She’s a cute little thing. And honestly, so’s Dean Winchester. If I wasn’t technically his business partner, I’d seriously consider seeing if he was interested in having a little fun, too.”

Cas only barely held in his groan. Yes, he knew that Dean may be interested in something, but in the same breath she brought it up, Hannah had already made it clear why Dean was off limits. It pained him too much to think about, that he may never have even met Dean if it weren’t for Hannah and her project, and yet Hannah and her project were the one thing standing between him and any sort of relationship with Dean. He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed.

“Don’t make that face at me, Cas. I know you like Dean, too. He’s a great guy, and it’s a thousand times more obvious when you see him in his element. We’re gonna have a great time Saturday. You’ll see.”

She patted him on the knee and then got up to throw something together for dinner. Cas let his head loll back on the cushion and stared up at the ceiling. He’d need all the strength he possessed just to survive the weekend.

 

***

 

By Saturday morning, Dean had learned to avoid going anywhere the construction zone, as he’d begun to think of it. On Thursday, a foreman’s trailer had shown up on the old front paddock while he’d been having lunch with Jesse and Cesar. A few hours later, trucks started rolling in and dropping off various construction heavy equipment and what looked to Dean like enough pipe to replumb all of Tucson. Sam had assured him it was just the main water and sewer lines being run in from the highway, but it still looked excessive to Dean. Luckily for him, Sam and Eileen had stepped in to act as the liaisons to the construction crew, which meant Dean was free to continue ignoring all of it as much as possible. That was just fine by him.

On Friday, Dean had spotted crews from the power, water, and gas companies out at the site while coming in from his morning ride. He snapped a picture over the top of Jericho’s ears and sent it off to Cas without a second thought. They’d both been sending each other random messages and photos over the last few days, just odd little updates about interesting things they’d seen or done. An unusually colorful lizard Dean saw out on a trail, a bee Cas had watched flit among cactus flowers during his lunch break. Nothing too serious, and definitely nothing even remotely hinting at their indiscretion at the motel.

_ <<My office today is a little more crowded and noisy than usual _ .

Cas replied about fifteen minutes later with a photo of his telescope taken through the windshield of his car in the parking lot. The thing was freaking huge, and it was the first real look Dean had had of just how imposing it was-- for a telescope, anyway.

_ >>My apologies, Dean. I hope the construction isn’t interfering with your regular work. Things are just as quiet as usual here today. _

Dean smiled and absently stroked the mane of the horse he was comforting during her labor. He could just picture Cas’s serious face, his genuine concern. For the hundredth time he cursed the circumstances that had brought them together. There was nothing he could do to change it, so instead he snapped a quick picture of Blackwater and sent it along.

_ <<Nah, I’ll be fine. This girl’s not bothered either. Blackwater’s about to give birth. I’ll send you a pic when she does. _

_ >>I look forward to your daily briefing, then. Good luck to you, and to Blackwater. _

Jesse made him put his phone away to help, and Dean forgot all about the nonsense going on out by his front gate. Blackwater delivered her foal an hour later, and Dean texted Cas a picture of the wobbly-legged roan horse just minutes later, as promised.

_ <<We’re calling him Manitoc. _

_ >>That’s an interesting moniker to saddle such a small horse with. He’s beautiful. My congratulations to his mother. _

Dean couldn’t help but laugh, muttering under his breath,  _ said the dude who wanted to name a horse Heliostat _ .

Saturday brought a temporary relief from the influx of construction activity, but a serious resurgence of Dean’s anxiety. He hadn’t seen Cas since he’d walked away without so much as a glance back at him at that motel. It was one thing to swap a few friendly text messages, but another thing entirely to have to spend the whole day together making polite small talk in front of the very siblings they were both making major life sacrifices to keep happy. There was a hell of a lot more than whatever nebulous spark they’d felt for each other riding on their ability to be sociable and polite.

Dean spent the morning distracting himself with his usual chores around the barn. It was easy enough to focus on the horses and put off worrying about entertaining Hannah and Cas all afternoon. By the time Eileen called him in for lunch he’d burned through most of his worry. He kicked off his dusty boots at the kitchen door and gave himself a cursory brush-off, but that did little to curb Eileen’s reaction to his appearance.

“Ew, Dean. Are you really gonna greet company like that?”

“Like what?” Dean gave himself a once-over, but he didn’t seem any dirtier than he usually was by that time of day.

“Sweaty and gross,” Sam said from where he sat at the table, both hands wrapped around a sandwich overflowing with green stuff.

“I’m not gross,” Dean replied, grabbing a can of Coke from the fridge and fixing himself a sandwich more befitting human consumption than Sam’s rabbit food. “Besides, we’re just going out to the barn again.”

“Maybe consider changing your shirt, at least,” Sam suggested.

Dean surreptitiously gave his shoulder a sniff and shrugged. He smelled like horses and hay, and he couldn’t think of anything objectionable about that.

He ate quickly and went right back out to the barn to saddle up Jericho so she’d be ready to go. Sam came out a few minutes later and saddled his favorite horse, a sorrel named Gabriel that Dean felt was too unruly to ride most of the time, but Sam had always taken a perverse pleasure in fighting to keep him on the trail. For Eileen, who had only been out riding a couple of times, he picked out a gentle horse named Mildred who’d be content enough to keep in line with the rest of the horses without too much direction. They’d nearly finished when they heard a car rolling up outside.

Dean left Sam to finish up and went out to greet their guests. He stopped dead in his tracks when he got a load of the car Cas and Hannah stepped out of. It definitely wasn’t Hannah’s, because there was no way in hell Dean would’ve missed this boat sitting in the parking lot of that motel. An old champagne colored Lincoln now sat parked next to his Baby, and as odd as it looked, something about the scene just seemed right to Dean. He collected himself and headed through the clouds of settling dust to say hello.

“What’s with the pimpmobile?” he asked, unable to contain his grin.

Castiel squinted at him over the roof as he slammed the driver’s side door, and Hannah just laughed.

“Don’t make fun of Cas’s car,” she warned. “He loves this crappy hunk of junk.”

“It’s not crappy,” Cas replied, turning to point at Dean’s Impala. “Not everyone thinks old equals crappy.”

“Eye of the beholder,” Dean replied, walking over to his car. “This is my baby. I’d never disparage a man’s wheels.”

Cas shot Hannah a victorious little smirk. “Hello, Dean. It’s good to see you again.”

Dean debated what to do for a split second before awkwardly sticking out a hand for Cas to shake. “Hey, Cas. Hannah. I hope you’re ready to ride.”

Cas looked down at himself, dressed in jeans and a blue buttondown shirt, then lifted one foot to show Dean his footwear. “Hannah made me buy a pair of boots this morning. I hope these are suitable.”

Dean nearly choked as he took in the full picture. Cas looked great in cowboy boots. He regretted ever having watched Dr. Sexy as his eyes trailed up from the blue and grey boots to finally land on Cas’s grinning face. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah, those’ll do fine.”

Hannah snorted and stepped between them. “He was gonna wear sneakers.”

Dean nodded again. “Honestly, for a ride like this, sneakers probably would’ve been fine. So I guess neither of you’ve ridden before?”

“We both have,” Cas replied, glaring at his sister. “It’s just been a long time, and investing in riding boots for a single afternoon ride seemed excessive.”

“Well, then, you’ll just have to come back and ride again now that you shelled out for the boots.”

Dean considered kicking himself at that point, wondering how it had taken less than five minutes to stick his own booted foot into his mouth. He hadn’t meant that to sound as flirtatious as it did, or to potentially make Cas feel uncomfortable. Cas, however, seemed both surprised and flattered by Dean’s impromptu offer. The two of them stood staring at one another, both slightly flushed and otherwise incapable of normal human speech until Hannah brought them back with a little cough.

“Earth to Cas. Don’t you want to go meet your sun pony?”

Cas turned even pinker and turned it right back around on her. “You’re just eager to see the kittens again.”

Hannah shrugged, winked at Cas, and headed over to where Eileen was just coming out of the house. “Don’t keep us waiting too long now!” she called back to them, but she was already signing a hello to Eileen.

“So, you wanna meet Sunflower?” Dean asked, leading Cas over toward the outdoor exercise yard where most of his herd was kept during the day.

“I’d love to.”

“We can also pick you a horse to ride while we’re there.”

Cas just nodded and followed Dean. When they reached the yard, Dean climbed up the rails and jumped over the high fence in a smooth move that looked like something out of an action movie. Cas did his best to follow, and was relieved enough to land on his feet. Dean grinned at him, but said nothing as he moved through the herd of what must’ve been several hundred horses looking for Sunflower and her mother. He stopped to pet a few, telling Cas a little about some of the horses that might be a good match for him and asking questions about his skill level. Possibly because Dean had been distracted by his search for the right horse for Cas, Cas actually spotted Sunflower before Dean did, letting out a quiet little gasp as he walked over to where she stood.

“Easy, now,” Dean said, and Cas hadn’t been sure if he was talking to him or the horse. It didn’t matter either way, he decided. “Here she is. She’s a bit bigger than she was a week and a half ago, but she’s just as gorgeous and a lot more steady on her feet.”

Cas held out his hand for Sunflower to inspect and then gently patted her nose, feeling a strange sense of awe as she leaned into his hand.

“I would’ve let you ride Jude, here, but I don’t wanna take her away from Sunflower for that long. She’s a great horse, though.”

“She’s a great mother,” Cas replied, reaching out to assure Jude with a pat to her shoulder. “Sunflower needs her more than I do.”

Dean couldn’t help the stupid grin on his face. Sunflower had already latched on to Cas and was following him around like a duckling.

“You made a friend,” Dean said, nodding at the horse at Cas’s side.

They spent a few more minutes with Sunflower before Dean and Cas picked out two horses for him and Hannah to ride. Dean showed Cas how to fasten the bridle and reins, and they each walked one horse back to the gate and then into the barn to be saddled.

Out on the trail, Cas rode up at Dean’s side. The scenery was spectacular, the mountains in the distance against the clear blue sky, the vast and stunning array of plants and animals, and Dean telling stories about all of it. Cas was enraptured.

Hannah and Eileen rode behind them and Sam brought up the rear, doing his best to both wrestle with his recalcitrant horse and follow along as the women spoke in sign. He caught a few occasional signs that didn’t seem to make sense out of context. From what little he saw, it seemed as if they were talking about someone who was interested in dating someone else, and one of the someones in question seemed to be Dean, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. Dean hadn’t dated anyone in years; maybe not ever. He spent the occasional night with people he picked up in town, but the ranch kept him too busy to even make a regular thing out of that.

Sam gave up trying to figure out what they were talking about after just a few minutes. He was happy enough to be back out in the desert on the back of a horse that he stopped trying to eavesdrop and just let himself enjoy the ride.

Three hours later they trotted back to the barn. Dean leapt down from his horse with the same grace he’d hopped the fence earlier and immediately set to unfastening her saddle. The others followed slowly, with the occasional groan as they eased themselves to the ground. Dean couldn’t help but laugh.

“You city slickers ain’t used to riding, eh?”

“Shut up, jerk,” Sam said, stretching his back and blowing out a huge breath as he crouched down to unbuckle the saddle.

“You do this every day, Dean,” Cas said, looking a little trail-worn, but smiling brightly anyway. “Have a little pity on the rest of us. Better yet, I challenge you to come running with me one morning and see how long you last.”

Dean laughed at that, too. “I run plenty. Now you try it in cowboy boots, and I’ll accept your challenge.”

Hannah and Eileen exchanged a glance that involved a lot of eyebrow, and Sam caught on to their shenanigans.

“No, no don’t even think about egging my brother on,” he warned them. “It’s not worth it.”

The two women turned their collective eyebrows on Sam and then broke out in giggles. Sam looked helplessly between them and Dean, who just shrugged.

While Dean and Sam took care of the horses, Eileen and Hannah took Cas on a short walk to show him the construction site. There wasn’t much to see yet, so it wasn’t long before they all met up again out front of Dean’s house.

“So, Cas,” Sam said, leading the way through the kitchen and out to the back porch. “What do you think?”

“Your land is a thing of beauty and wonder. I think anyone would be honored to visit.”

“That’s what we’re hoping,” Hannah said.

In the shade of the house and several large mesquite and ebony trees, the late afternoon heat dropped from scorching to bearable on the spacious tiled patio. Sam brought out a pitcher of lemonade and a cooler filled with a variety of other drinks while Dean fired up the grill. Hannah settled into one of the cushy deck chairs and accepted a glass of lemonade, gratefully rubbing the cold glass over her brow before taking a sip and then making a more detailed assessment of the patio. On one side was a large fire pit surrounded by four stone benches, and on the other a huge custom stone grill and a long dining table with an inlaid tile top where Eileen was setting out bowls filled with rolls and salads.

“It’s beautiful out here,” she said. “You must do a lot of entertaining.”

Sam nearly snorted beer out his nose, earning a glare from Dean. It was Dean who answered, his back turned while he kept his attention on grilling the steaks.

“Not so much. Our mom started building this, and after she died it sort of stayed half-done for years. When I was old enough, I started working on it. We hardly get a chance to just hang out here. Mostly I just use the grill.”

There were a few beats of silence after that, but eventually Cas broke it. “Well, Dean, you made a beautiful space for yourself. I hope you get to enjoy it more frequently in the future.”

Dean smiled to himself and then turned to his assembled friends and family. “Hey, I’m enjoying it right now. This is what it was meant for.”

Dean and Sam sat at opposite ends of the table, Hannah and Eileen sat on one side, and Cas on the other, at the end closest to Dean. Over dinner, their easy conversation from out on the trail continued as if it had never been interrupted. Now that he wasn’t preoccupied with keeping his horse on the trail, Sam was able to overhear both their conversation, as well as spy on Eileen and Hannah’s surreptitious signing. He finally understood what he’d missed out at the barn and shot the women a conspiratorial eyebrow of his own.

After dinner, Sam cleared the table and Eileen brought out a berry cobbler for dessert, serving it up with scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream that had everyone in raptures.

“It’s no wonder you were so eager to do whatever it took to get these two to move in with you, Dean,” Hannah said. “This is delicious.”

Dean snorted and shoveled in another bite.

“Dean made the cobbler,” Sam informed her.

“I just pulled it out of the oven,” Eileen said.

Hannah whipped around in surprise. “You could open a restaurant with this. It’s fantastic.”

“Aren’t we gonna have a restaurant here soon enough? I’ll share the recipe with whoever you hire to cook.”

“Not a restaurant, per se,” Hannah clarified, happy to talk about the construction project again. “But we will be providing three meals a day and a variety of snacks to all the guests. And I’m gonna hold you to that, about the recipe.”

“Long as I get a piece whenever they make it, you got a deal.”

Dean and Cas fell almost immediately back into their own little world while Hannah and Sam worked out a few more details about Monday morning’s construction schedule. When their talk turned to astronomy shortly after nightfall, Cas led Dean on a short walk from the house. The uninterrupted night sky was the perfect visual aid for their discussion. After a few minutes craning their necks to observe the stars, Dean rubbed a kink out of his shoulder.

“Shoulda brought out a blanket to lie down on. Easier to look up that way.”

“Not used to stargazing?” Cas asked with a smirk.

“Aside from when I’m camping out in the desert and lying down? Not so much.”

Cas considered him for a moment and then looked back up at the sky. “I should bring a telescope next time then. I think you might enjoy it.”

Dean was silent for a moment just thinking about  _ next time _ , and feeling a prickling rush at the knowledge that despite the awkward situation with their siblings, Cas still wanted to do this again. He shook that off before his silence stretched on so long that Cas could take it the wrong way.

“Yeah, I’d really like that.”


	9. Chapter 9

Jesse and Cesar joined Dean on his Monday morning trail ride. With Hannah’s timetable for the first guests tentatively arriving in a little more than four months, he wanted to begin reassessing and possibly retraining some of their more easygoing horses. It would be a long process. Dean didn’t want it to cut into their regular training too much, so these frequent group rides were his compromise. It didn’t hurt that it was an excuse to get away from the construction zone for a while, especially first thing in the morning.

Sam had actually held up construction that morning until Dean was back at the barn, where he was greeted by a frantic yeti practically dragging him off his horse and shoving a suspiciously gold-toned shovel into his hand.

“We’ve been waiting for you for half an hour,” Sam said, as if that explained anything. Dean just stared at him like he was speaking in tongues until Sam huffed and rolled his eyes in frustration. “Dude, you gotta be there for the groundbreaking. We’re taking pictures.”

Dean looked at the shovel in his hand, then down at himself, sweat-stained and dusty from several hours work and another hour out on the trail. “Pictures? You’re not gonna make me do actual construction, right?”

“Just… come on. The foreman’s pissed I’ve made him wait this long. Don’t give him a reason to hate us before he even starts work.”

Dean followed Sam, grumbling under his breath about communication skills. He pasted on a smile as one of the construction crew snapped a few pictures of Dean, Sam, Hannah, and Eileen pretending to dig a hole in the hard-packed desert dirt beside a backhoe. As soon as he was relieved of his golden shovel, Dean leapt up into the machine and turned it on, messing with the controls until he managed to scoop up a sizeable chunk of earth. He swung the massive arm of the machine around while scattering the dirt to the wind, raising a choking cloud of dust and cackling the entire time. Several men from the construction crew struggled to decide whether they should be upset or laughing along with Dean.

“That’s how we do,” Dean yelled, shutting the machine down and jumping back to the ground. “Now that’s how you dig a hole.”

Dean grinned at the stunned crowd, clapped his hands once, and then ambled off back toward the barn. He still had a full day’s work ahead of him. As he walked, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to see that Sam was sending him pictures. The first was their staged groundbreaking. Dean was the only one in the picture who looked like he was actually trying to dig instead of just posing with their pointlessly fancy shovels. The second picture, though, had him laughing out loud. He looked like an extra in Mad Max, sitting up in the cab of the backhoe with a manic scream frozen in the shot as dirt poured from the massive scoop.

His first impulse was to send the picture to Cas.

_ <<My office this morning. _

Half an hour later, while he was just about to head over to help Garth round up the cattle herd, he got a reply.

_ >>I prefer your regular ride to this mechanical version. That one seems excessively noisy, and messy _ .

Dean replied immediately, feeling Jericho tense in anticipation beneath him as they rode up to the cattle pen. She was more than ready to do her job.

_ <<I got a better ride now. I’d rather be shifting these guys around than a bunch of dirt anyway. _

He snapped a picture of a few hundred longhorns all looking wary at the sight of a quartet of cowboys armed with lassos, and sent it off to Cas. From the little dots at the bottom of the screen, he could tell Cas was typing something, deleting it, then typing again.

_ >>I didn’t realize how large your cows are. _

_ >>They are very large. _

Dean smiled down at the phone and sent one last message.

_ <<Don’t worry, I know how to handle ‘em. Next time you’re out here, I’ll introduce you. Maybe we can even do a little team cattle penning if you’re up for it. _

_ >>I don’t know what that is, but I’ll give it a try. _

He tucked his phone away. He’d have plenty of time to explain later.

Over the course of the week, Dean did his best to ignore the construction crews as they dug up his land. Wednesday saw the first in a long line of concrete mixers pouring the foundation of the new guest house. It was a little annoying, but the horses were taking the intrusion on their usual peace and quiet as well as could be expected, and as long as they were okay, Dean was okay. He did, however, sneak out to the site and mash his handprint into the wet concrete when no one was looking.

Between Sam, Eileen, and Hannah, the construction moved along without Dean having to lift a finger, and that was just the way he liked it. Sam had tried to get him involved early on, but after half a dozen, “It’s your project, Sam. I’ve already got a job,” sorts of responses, Sam gave up and left him out of everything. That didn’t mean he didn’t see Hannah quite frequently. She often joined them for lunch, and every once in a while Dean would catch her playing with Meg’s kittens in the hay loft, or standing out by the fence watching the horses. He wholeheartedly approved of how she spent her breaks.

Thursday afternoon, Hannah finally sought him out as he was sorting the last of the day’s chores and getting ready to call it a night. She found him in the tack room assessing their inventory at Sam’s behest. Having dozens of guests all wanting to ride at the same time would seriously strain their current resources. They may have plenty of horses, but they didn’t usually saddle up more than a dozen or so at the most at any given time. He was running through his shopping list and cringing at just how much they were going to have to lay out to make it work.

“Dean?” Hannah called out as she neared the tack room. She appeared in the doorway a moment later, looking around wide-eyed at all the equipment neatly hung on the walls around the room. “Cesar told me I’d find you in here. Do you have a few minutes?”

Dean set down his notebook and gave her a tired little smile. “Yeah, just thinking about all the equipment we’re gonna need, and wondering where we’re gonna put it all.”

“Well, you know we’re building a freestanding tack barn on the other side of the facility to serve the guest ranch. We worked that and the equipment costs into the budget, so it’s not quite as devastating a prospect as you’re probably thinking.”

Dean shrugged, leaning against a well-worn saddle resting on a wooden saw horse in the middle of the room. “It’s still a huge deal for me. I know how to run a ranch, but putting on a show for a bunch of strangers every day is--”

“A little terrifying?” Hannah asked with a wry little grin, and Dean made a dismissive sound but didn’t deny it. “I know, and that’s partly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What, about how incapable I am of dealing with the general public?”

“No, about…  _ easing _ you into it. Eileen and I were talking about maybe finding a way to start bringing guests in sooner, both to bring in a little extra capital to offset some of your costs, but also to help us all see what works for guests.”

“You gonna have ‘em camp out in tents or something? ‘Cause they’re not gonna fit in my house.”

Hannah laughed at the look of horror on Dean’s face. “No, nothing that awful. We were thinking of running a single day program, possibly just on the weekends at first. Guests arrive in the morning, they have a nice ride, maybe either see some typical cowboy skills demonstrated for them, or even get to try some out themselves. Maybe have a picnic lunch in there somewhere, and then a bonfire and entertainment over dinner in the evening.”

Dean thought about this for a few minutes, and the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. “Yeah, I can see that. It’ll give the horses a chance to get used to the routine is small doses. Sam’s been pushing me to make up a daily schedule of activities for guests, and I guess testing it out on a few guinea pigs who aren’t shelling out for a whole week of bullshit that we haven’t nailed down would be a good idea.”

“That’s the spirit!” Hannah punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You just let me know what you need, and we can start working up a schedule. Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. I’ll happily volunteer myself and Cas to be your first guinea pigs. He’s been talking about last Saturday all week, and I think he’d really love to come back, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Dean blinked at her for a second, his heart stuttering in his chest before he clamped his open mouth shut. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Two birds with one stone, and I’ll have a list of activities worked up by then.” He leaned over to pick up his notebook and then stopped mid-motion. “When were you thinking of doing that?”

“Is Saturday okay with you again? I know it’s short notice, but Cas would be really happy about it. His complete lack of a social life has been a sticking point since I’ve been here, but don’t tell him I said that.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Dean said with a snort, spreading his arms wide. “Who am I gonna tell, anyway, seeing as this is about as exciting as my social life gets lately.”

Hannah inexplicably smiled at that and then headed toward the door. “Well, now that that’s all settled, I’ll leave you to your planning.”

Dean spent a few minutes finishing up his inventory and then headed back to his house, notebook in hand. He’d called it quits earlier than usual, but he figured he had a different kind of work he needed to take care of that was just as important-- if not more important than puttering uselessly around the barn making chores for himself-- in the long run. No matter how beautiful a building Hannah constructed, nor how great the food, nor how beautiful the scenery, a guest ranch with a shitty itinerary of activities wouldn’t stay in business long.

Sam may have let him bail on the hotel operations side of things, but Dean needed to keep up his end of the bargain. He worked out details and schedules that would ensure the guests would interfere with his actual ranch business as little as possible, but inevitably he’d have to hire a few more hands to help out. Dean didn’t have time to personally guide dozens of people around the trails every day, nor give riding lessons to greenhorns and take care of all their equipment. Unless he was willing to abandon his breeding and training program altogether, and that was absolutely not an option.

He showered and changed into sweats and an old t-shirt, and Sam was shocked to find him on the living room sofa scribbling furiously in his notebook when it was time for dinner.

“Dean, I’ve been looking all over the place for you. Are you sick or something? Why aren’t you out at the barn milking chickens or something?”

Dean glared at his brother and held up his notebook. “I am milking chickens. Making schedules of guest activities, and figuring we need to hire at least two or three new hands to make any of it work. Probably more, eventually.”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up and he edged around the couch to take a seat and peek at the notebook. Dean handed it over and Sam read through his notes.

“All day trail ride, fast ride, flora and fauna ride… Dude, you gonna point at every cactus and bird or some shit? Since when are you an expert on the local flora and fauna? You still send me pictures of snakes labeled  _ snake _ .”

“Sometimes they’re rattlesnakes. I can tell a rattlesnake. These are just ideas, anyway. I thought if some of the hands we hire were experts in this shit, it might look good on the brochures, you know?”

“The website, you mean. Does anyone even make brochures anymore?”

Dean narrowed his eyes at his brother. “We’re gonna make brochures.”

Sam held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. Whatever. Some of this sounds kinda awesome anyway. Sunset hayride and picnic? I’d do that one.”

Dean rolled his eyes and snatched back his notebook. “I’ll also post a schedule of our regular training activities, if anyone just wants to watch. Maybe a couple times a week we can pull out the barrels, do some roping, penning, that sorta shit. Let guests learn to use a lasso, maybe even penning if they’re up for it.”

Sam smiled at him and nodded. “Sounds great, Dean. I’m really glad you’re getting into it. I know you hated this idea at the beginning, but I want you to be happy with everything we’re doing here. I want you to love it as much as we do.”

Dean took a deep breath. “I never hated the idea of it, Sammy. I was just glad enough you wanted to come home. It would take a lot more than this to make me hate any idea that brought you back.”

“Plus Hannah’s great, right? She loves this ranch almost as much as you do.”

“Yeah, I can tell. It’s kinda creepy, but I appreciate it. She told you about Saturday, right? Our trial run for the day tripper crowd?”

“Yeah, she and Eileen have been making plans, too. Which reminds me. Dinner’s ready.”

Dean nodded and got up to follow Sam to the kitchen, setting aside his notebook for the time being, thoughts of Saturday and seeing Cas again replacing the endless stream of faceless guests he’d been thinking about all afternoon. He pulled out his phone and sent an impulsive message before he could talk himself out of it.

_ <<You better bring that telescope on Saturday. _

He didn’t get a reply right away, so he sighed and tucked his phone in his pocket and headed into the kitchen.

 

***

 

Cas had been running late getting home, and was grateful that Hannah had brought dinner with her. The aromas of Szechuan beef and spring rolls and crab rangoon greeted him the moment he opened his front door and he sighed happily as he dropped his satchel filled with research notes on the coffee table. Hannah called out a greeting from the kitchen, redundantly informing him that she’d ordered Chinese.

On his way to the kitchen, his phone buzzed in his pocket and he was happy to see a new message from Dean. Their last conversation had been earlier that afternoon when Dean had sent him a picture of a coachwhip snake perched in the branches of a mesquite tree, with the creative and descriptive label of  _ snake _ attached. A back and forth ensued over whether Dean was being deliberately silly or whether he could actually identify the potentially venomous animals he encountered on a daily basis.

Dean started sending him text after text, each one containing the common and frequently also the Latin names of all the desert creatures he saw on a regular basis, with a short description of each that read like entries on a sightseeing guide to the local fauna, only with a lot more color and far more profanity. Cas had been sitting at his computer, supposedly reviewing footage of a solar flare, but found himself practically crying with laughter at Dean’s persistence. It was worth having to stay an extra half hour to finish his work for the day as a result. Cas held back in the living room to open the message in case he was about to be subjected to another litany of Dean’s sense of humor. Instead, he saw Dean’s baffling demand that he bring his telescope. Saturday.

Cas stared at the message for a moment, wracking his brain to recall if he’d even made plans to visit Dean this weekend. Not that he’d object to doing so. In fact, he’d be delighted. He was just confused by the abrupt tone of Dean’s invitation. Then again, he was familiar with the fact that tone often didn’t convey well via text message. He’d been informed numerous times that people who didn’t know him well might find his sense of humor a little too blunt to come across properly. He’d found it was a difficulty in person, as well, so he’d never worried too much about it. Dean, however... he could usually tell when Dean was making a joke, at least.

Then he thought maybe he’d just missed that message. He scrolled up, reading through their earlier conversations, but no; there was nothing. He decided it would be best to run it by Hannah before he replied, just to be sure.

He found her plating up their dinner and setting it out on the table. Before he could even ask about Dean’s message, she answered every question running through his mind.

“So, we’re going back to the ranch on Saturday. We’re going to be the first official unofficial guests for a trial run of Dean’s guest activities program. I assume your schedule’s clear? No big parties taking over your weekend? You haven’t penciled in an orgy or anything, have you?” She shot him a smirk and then reached into the fridge for a couple of Cokes.

Cas laughed and shook his head. “No, I didn’t have anything planned. But that explains the message Dean just sent demanding I bring my telescope.”

Hannah perked up at that and swallowed a bite of her spring roll. “You’ve been talking with him a lot, haven’t you?”

“I suppose I have.” He poked at his rice with his chopsticks, picking out a bit of water chestnut to avoid looking at his sister. “Dean is an interesting person.”

Hannah snorted. “That’s one word for him. So what’s your deal?”

Cas looked up at her, trying to keep his face from giving his whole deal away. “My deal?”

“Yes, you and Dean. I mean, it’s obvious you two get along…”

She trailed off, taking a bite of crab and waiting for him to confess. Cas felt his heart rate triple at the unspoken accusation. He wasn’t sure if flat-out denial would work. Hannah was right. Ever since Cas had walked away from Dean at the motel pool, he’d been aware that this could eventually happen. As far as he could tell, Dean didn’t regret what had happened between them, but it was also clear that Dean understood why it couldn’t happen again. Cas had been grateful it hadn’t prevented them from at least remaining friends.

“We do,” was all he said, hoping to get Hannah to start talking again instead of feeling pressured into lying to her about how he really felt about her business partner.

Hannah nodded, taking a few more bites and letting him think he was off the hook. “I guess I’m just glad you’re socializing outside of work.”

“I socialize outside of work... sometimes,” Cas said defensively. “Just because I haven’t found the time to venture out into the wider world since you’ve been here doesn’t mean I lived as a hermit for the last two years.”

“I know, Cas, but you really do seem to like Dean, and he really seems to like you, too.”

Cas shot her a glare, hoping he could will her to stop talking with the power of his mind, but as usual when it came to his sister, he failed. She set down her chopsticks and took a deep breath, giving him her undivided focus.

“Okay, here goes. Eileen and I have been talking for weeks about how well the two of you hit it off back in Palo Alto, and how you’ve both been alone for too long. You’re both too dedicated to your work to do anything for yourselves, and we were kind of hoping if we gave you two enough opportunities, something would, you know…  _ spark  _ between you. And I wasn’t gonna say anything to you about it yet and just let nature take its course, but you  _ are _ talking to him constantly, and I just had to know.”

Hannah sat there with her lips pressed together looking slightly flushed and entirely contrite. Meanwhile Cas opened and closed his mouth a few times, almost speaking but not really knowing what to say. This was, to say the least, a highly unexpected development.

“You mean you  _ want _ me to feel some sort of attraction for Dean?”

“Oh no,” Hannah said, waving a hand as if she could somehow erase what she’d already said. “I’m not trying to tell you how to feel or what to do. Well, not really. I just want you to be happy, Cas.”

He blinked a few times and slowly shook his head in disbelief. Entirely unbidden, the truth just tumbled out of him. “You should know that Dean and I agreed to put our feelings aside weeks ago for the good of your partnership. Well, we didn’t actually come to an agreement, in so many words, but it seemed the only option. Especially after you told me  _ you  _ wouldn’t consider asking him out because he was your business partner. It seemed… inappropriate for me to turn around and strike up a relationship with him. I would never do anything to jeopardize your work, Han. You have to know that.”

It was Hannah’s turn to stare open-mouthed at him, before recovering just enough to mutter absently under her breath. “So that idiot has probably been thinking the same way because of Sam, hasn’t he. Well, then I’m certainly glad I didn’t wait for nature on this one. I don’t know if Eileen is going to die laughing at the two of you, or if she’s just going to need to go lie down in a dark room for the rest of the day. She told me Dean could be a little oblivious sometimes, but this is ridiculous. Honestly, Cas. Did you really think I’d object?”

Cas’s eyebrows crinkled together as he frowned. “Yes?”

Hannah pulled out her phone and started texting Eileen. Cas ate the rest of his dinner as quickly as he could, but Hannah remained in the kitchen, exchanging a furious flurry of messages and completely ignoring him. It reminded him of the message from Dean that he still hadn’t replied to. After the dizzying conversation he’d had with his sister, he wasn’t even sure  _ how _ to reply anymore. Then again, maybe all of this was best addressed face to face. He’d be seeing Dean again soon enough, and hopefully they’d get a chance to talk alone. Maybe he hadn’t burned his last bridge when he’d turned his back on Dean at that motel, but he’d have to wait until Saturday to find out.

 

***

 

Dean ate quickly, hoping to get back to finishing up his list before hitting the hay. He’d just rinsed his plate off when Eileen pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the message there with a gasp. She quickly typed out a reply, and almost immediately received another message. When Sam asked her who was blowing up her phone, Eileen just answered  _ Hannah _ , and went right back to her message deluge.

Rather than use her distraction as an excuse to flee the room, Dean stood in the kitchen doorway and pulled out his own phone. Still no reply from Cas. He debated sending him another message, but couldn’t decide on what else to say. Maybe Cas let his phone battery die. Maybe he was still driving home from work and couldn’t reply. Maybe he was sitting next to his sister and involved in the text storm Eileen was engaged in. Maybe they were all talking about what a presumptuous jerk Dean was. He sighed and shook those thoughts from his head before they turned unnecessarily dark and slumped back to the living room sofa to bury himself in his notes.

He’d added three more items to his list when his phone finally buzzed. It took him a minute to work up the nerve to look, but when he did he felt the muscles in his shoulders unknot.

_ >>I look forward to it. _

Dean stared at the message for another minute or two and then replied.

_ <<I been working on this list all day trying write out a schedule. You up for some cowboy games? _

 

***

 

Cas was relieved that he was alone in his room when Dean’s reply finally came through. After Hannah had essentially given her blessing, he decided that even if they did really need to have this conversation face to face, maybe there wasn’t any harm in pushing the envelope just a little bit. He was certain he wouldn’t have dared it if Hannah had been staring him down across the table, but he was sitting on the edge of his bed with the door shut. He took a chance.

_ <<Is that a flirtation? _

He watched the little dots at the bottom of the screen flash and wondered if Dean was as flustered as he’d been back at that motel pool. It brought a wicked little smile to his face. Having what amounted to Hannah’s full and enthusiastic approval had lifted a huge weight off his chest. Dean might not know it yet, but it gave Cas a little thrill to feel free to tease him a little bit in the meantime.

_ >>Do you want it to be? _

Cas was so shocked by Dean’s reply, and so entirely unprepared to answer that question via text, he was relieved when Dean’s next message came through.

_ >>I meant team cattle penning, but if you’re not up for that, I get it. _

Cas ignored Dean’s first message for the time being, but at least he knew that Dean wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea of flirtation. It was a start.

_ <<Oh right, I googled that. It looks difficult. I’m not sure I have the skill to play. _

Dean began typing right away, and his message came through quickly.

_ >>Nah, you’ll do fine. The horses do most of the work anyway. They know their jobs. _

_ >>We’ll play on easy mode too. Four cows, no cutting. _

Cas grinned to himself and tried to picture Dean sitting atop his horse, maneuvering through a huge herd of longhorns as the animals parted for him like the sea before Moses. He was glad he’d read that article, because he knew exactly what Dean had meant.

_ <<If you think I can do it, I’m game. What else do you have on the agenda for us, or is it supposed to be a surprise? _

Their easy conversation returned, and they exchanged messages until Dean finally begged off in the name of sleep. Now all Cas needed to do was to get Dean alone long enough to apologize for walking away from him at that motel and set a few things about their relationship to rights. Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.


	10. Chapter 10

Friday dragged along more slowly than any single day had a right to. Dean spent some time with Jesse and Cesar revising his guest activity list and working out just how many people they’d need to hire, even just to make Hannah’s day tripper cowboy experience program work. The three of them pulled Hannah into the barn after lunch and worked out a definitive plan to start offering Saturday and Sunday custom ranch experiences by the end of the month. Dean had already taken care of the riding portion of the day’s schedule, and now it would be up to Hannah to handle the logistics of the catering and evening entertainment.

“You know we both just made a hell of a lot of extra work for ourselves, here,” Dean told her as they walked past the small office in the barn. 

“You might be right,” Hannah replied as Alex stepped out of the office with a handful of flyers she’d just printed out and handed them to Dean.

Dean looked them over and grinned at her. “You gonna hang these up at every feed store in the county or something?”

Alex shrugged. “You said we needed to hire some extra help over the weekends, I figured I’d take the initiative.”

“I’ve been meaning to find someone to build a website for the ranch,” Hannah said, glancing in mild horror at the paper flyers with little tear-off strips bearing the ranch’s landline phone number. “Maybe I need to get that set up sooner rather than later. We’ll need to start advertising properly soon, but in the meantime it might make the hiring process a little easier for all of us to have a central website to manage everything.”

Dean grinned. “I think I’ve gotcha covered on that one.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text off to Charlie. “She’ll have us sorted by the end of the day. Is it okay if I give her your number?”

Hannah nodded, looking relieved. “Thank you. I was beginning to get a little nervous. I haven’t really had a chance to investigate the local music scene, or see what other sorts of live entertainment were even available yet. It’ll be a lot easier to put out an ad and wait for them to come to us.”

Dean laughed at that and shook his head. “I’m thinking you might wanna leave some of the entertainment sourcing up to the locals, but I appreciate it.”

“So you want me to post these anyway, boss?” Alex asked, waving the stack of help wanted flyers in Dean’s face.

Dean made an exaggeratedly thoughtful pouty face and then nodded. “You just want an excuse to spend the rest of the afternoon driving around town looking for cowboys, don’t you.”

Alex rolled her eyes and walked out of the barn. Dean laughed as he heard her car start up and drive off.

Dean spent most of the rest of the afternoon cooped up in his office with Hannah, talking with Charlie over the phone as she got their entire website set up. While Hannah appreciated the vast array of ideas Dean had come up with, at Charlie’s suggestion they decided to stick to a simpler schedule until the guest house was ready to open. 

Charlie sent Dean the link to view the layout for their new site, and he had to admit he was really impressed. She’d incorporated some of the photos she’d taken over Christmas, and she’d really captured the heart and soul of Winchester 275. There were pictures of Sam roping a steer, Eileen’s first riding lesson, Jesse and Cesar tending to one of the foals, Alex and Jody and Donna singing Christmas carols around a campfire, Garth and Bess setting out dinner on the patio out behind their house, and Dean atop Jericho leading Charlie and Gilda through the desert at sunset, in addition to dozens of pictures of all the beauty the desert had to offer. There were a few other shots he wished he could add to the collection that included his entire extended family.

Sam and Eileen, Garth and Bess, Jesse and Cesar, Charlie and Gilda, Jody and Donna… Dean was the odd man out. His thoughts drifted unwillingly to Cas, but then Hannah shifted beside him trying to get a better look at the monitor and Dean forced those thoughts away. He wouldn’t trade the happiness of everyone around him, of everyone who depended on him, for some selfish fling with a guy he’d barely known for three weeks. No matter how much it hurt to admit it.

Dean had to bite his lip and take a few deep breaths to get through the whole gallery. He got a handle on himself and turned to the business side of things, like the professional he was pretending to be.

He clicked through the banner headline on the home page labeled Weekend Rancher Package. The page listed the schedule of activities beginning with the choice of either a riding lesson or a guided trail ride, followed by a picnic lunch and a rodeo skills demonstration, then an afternoon mountain ride, ending with a cookout and campfire. It was a simple enough schedule to keep guests entertained without straining their current resources past the breaking point. Dean’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the ticket information.

“A hundred and twenty-five dollars a person? What the hell? You think people are gonna pay that?”

“I think they’re getting a steal,” Charlie replied. “They’re getting two meals and an all day experience for that. Plus if you’re gonna need to hire extra help to make it happen, you’re probably looking at just about breaking even at that rate.”

Dean shot Hannah a disbelieving glance and she just shrugged. “I think if we cap the number of guests to about ten per day, you might be able to keep things manageable for your current staff.”

Dean sighed and ran a hand down his face. “Nah, I can’t spare anyone for that long two days a week. We gotta hire at least one hand to help out, especially if we’re gonna be having folks here that have never even seen a horse, let alone got on one before.”

He could practically see Charlie’s grin over the speakerphone.  “You aren’t the most patient teacher.”

“Shut up, Charles, I’ve been apologizing for that shit for how many years now? How the hell was I supposed to know you didn’t know how to make a horse stop. I mean it’s like the third thing you learn.”

She hummed and let him dangle on the line for a few more beats. “I may have implied I had more experience than I actually did.”

Dean blinked down at his phone in shock. “Could you repeat that?”

“Fine, everything I knew about horseback riding before that day came from watching old Lone Ranger episodes when I was a kid, okay? Are you happy now?”

“Not particularly,” Dean replied. “You coulda been hurt. It ain’t okay to lie about that shit.”

“What can I do to make it up to you? Ooh! I know the perfect thing. There’s a new guy who’s been coming to some of the Moondoor events lately. He’s a knight in my honor guard. I think you two might hit it off. I could assign him to my handmaiden’s detail, if you’d like to get to know him. Being queen has its privileges.”

A month ago Dean would’ve considered it, but now? “No, I think I’m gonna have to take a pass.”

Charlie was quiet just long enough that Dean wondered if she’d hung up on him. “Are you seeing someone, Dean? Wait, let me clarify. Are you seeing someone and didn’t tell me about it?”

Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. This wasn’t a conversation he had time for right then and there. He wished he was seeing someone, and if he didn’t think about his current relationship with Cas too hard, from the outside it kinda looked like they might’ve been seeing each other. But the reality of it all was just too fucked up to relate without explaining everything from start to finish. “It’s… it’s complicated.”

“Right.,” Charlie said, taking that in and remembering they were supposed to be conducting business and not gossiping. “Well. I guess I should let you get back to work now, but I expect you to uncomplicate it for me as soon as possible. I’ll text you when the site goes live. Gimme about an hour and you should be good to go.”

“Thank you, Charlie,” Hannah said. “We appreciate it.”

Dean froze. He’d completely forgotten that Hannah was there, and now she’d overheard everything he’d said. He raced back through what he’d said out loud, and what he’d only thought to himself. He’s sure he didn’t imply his  _ complicated  _ thing had anything to do with Hannah’s unfairly attractive brother. Dean still felt the strange compulsion to apologize when he finally hung up the phone.

“Sorry about Charlie. I’ve known her for years, and she’s sort of appointed herself my annoying little sister.”

“I know how little sisters can be,” Hannah replied, her smile a little stiff. “Just ask Castiel. Or maybe don’t. I know how big brothers can be, too.”

Dean laughed at that and picked up his phone to do exactly what Hannah had suggested. He texted Cas.

_ <<Hannah just confessed to being an annoying little sister. I thought you might like to know. _

A few moments passed while Dean showed Hannah his phone screen, before Cas replied.

_ >>I checked outdoors and didn’t see any flying swine. Does this mean Hell has frozen over? Why did she suddenly confess after years of torment? _

_ <<Far as I know Hell’s still hot. She was trying to offer me sympathy after overhearing an awkward conversation with a friend who’s like a sister to me. _

_ >>Is she still there? _

_ <<Who, my friend? _

_ >>No, Dean. Hannah.  _

_ <<Yeah, we’re finishing up for the day soon. _

_ >>Good. I was about to leave for the day as well. You can inform my sister that you and I will continue discussing meddling little sisters when we’re not burdened by their presence. _

Dean cackled so hard he nearly fell off his chair, and sent back a few cry-laughing emojis before showing the message to Hannah. Hannah just rolled her eyes and smiled, her earlier discomfort replaced by genuine warmth. Dean had been worried that she was on to him, and it was a relief that he’d been able to keep her entirely in the dark.

 

***

 

By the time Hannah arrived home, Cas had been there long enough to order pizza and change into sweats. He’d debated going for a run before dinner, but had nixed it after thinking about all the unaccustomed physical activity he’d be engaging in the next day. If the previous weekend’s comparatively short ride had been any indication, he’d be getting more than enough of a workout riding for the entire day to make up for one lazy night.

Instead of running, he’d been sprawled out on the couch texting Dean, learning about Charlie and all the trouble they’d gotten up to at various LARPing events and comic book conventions. In return he’d told Dean some rather hilarious stories from his own childhood with Hannah, and how they’d united in self-defense against scores of older cousins they’d grown up with.

“I ordered pizza,” Cas replied when Hannah called out a hello. “It should be here in about fifteen minutes.”

He’d expected her to use that time to unwind from her day at the construction site. She usually came home covered in dust, and her first mission was typically to shower and change into something that didn’t look like she’d rolled home across the desert in. Instead, she came into the living room and just stood there, glancing first at the dark blue club chair and then down at her dusty clothes, frowning. After a moment of deliberation, she decided to sit on the edge coffee table directly in front of Cas. It was so out of character and she seemed so genuinely distressed that Cas set his phone down and sat up.

“What’s wrong?”

Hannah shook her head and took a deep breath, preparing herself to dive in. “Has Dean mentioned any relationships with anyone else?”

Cas furrowed his brow. “Where is this coming from, Hannah? Why are you so… flustered?”

She sighed and rubbed her temple, slumping a little bit. “I don’t know. It’s just something I overheard him say made me wonder if he might not be as available as I’d been led to believe.”

“You were practically shoving me at him yesterday, and now one overheard comment is enough to give you second thoughts? What happened?”

Cas’s phone buzzed on the cushion beside his leg and he remembered his ongoing conversation with Dean. He held it up to show Hannah and typed a  _ brb _ message to Dean so he wouldn’t think Cas was just ignoring him. When he put the phone down, Hannah was smiling again.

“Are you still texting Dean? It’s been nearly two hours.”

“Well I didn’t text him while I was driving home. That would be both dangerous and against the law.”

Hannah snorted, and then sobered again at the distressed look on Cas’s face. “It’s probably nothing, but I think he forgot I was in the room while he was talking to the woman designing our website--”

“Charlie,” Cas confirmed, and Hannah nodded.

“She tried to set him up with someone she knows, and he turned her down. When she pushed him to give her a reason why not--”

Cas cut her off again, grinning and waving his phone at her. “I believe this was the reason our entire conversation began, yes.”

Hannah persisted, though. “She asked him if he was seeing someone, and he didn’t say anything specific, but he told her it was complicated. I just thought you deserved to know before you went asking him out yourself, just because I pushed you into it.”

Cas blinked at her a few times, dropping his hand and his phone into his lap and sitting back against the cushions. “He hasn’t mentioned anything about a complicated romantic entanglement to me.”

Hannah nodded once. “And you have been talking with him a lot, right? About real stuff, and not just complaining about little sisters and snakes and work.”

Cas thought back over the entire two and a half weeks they’d known each other. He’d never really shared as much of himself with anyone as quickly as he had with Dean. And he felt that Dean had been just as open with him in return.

Dean had mentioned a few people he’d dated in the past, but it had been clear that they were not serious relationships and that they were in the very distant past. As long ago as Cas’s brief relationship with Anna had been, if two dates even counted as a relationship. Dean had talked about friends and his work and his childhood, but never gave him any hint that he was hiding a relationship he’d deem  _ complicated _ . Especially considering what had happened between them at the motel. Two weeks ago when he’d kissed him, Dean hadn’t seemed to have any complications holding him back. At least not until Cas had walked away from him. And, oh. There it was.

“Hannah,” Cas said carefully. “Do you think maybe  _ I’m _ the complication?”

“You?” she replied, a faraway look gradually coming more into focus. “You said the two of you had agreed to set your feelings aside and remain friends.”

Cas raised an eyebrow and waited for Hannah to get there on her own.

“Oh, you might be right about that, then… So when did this happen? In Palo Alto? I mean, it was obvious even back then that the two of you were into each other, but when did it even come up? It’s not like the two of you had any kind of privacy to have a big relationship talk. I think I would’ve noticed that.”

Cas debated how much to reveal to his sister about running into Dean at that motel, knowing full well she’d probably turn right around and relay everything to Eileen. He’d regretted how he walked away from Dean the second he’d turned his back. It would’ve been so easy to stay and see what happened, but at the same time it would’ve been impossible. And if he’d stayed for even one more kiss, or just a little longer, he might not have been able to make himself leave. The regret he would’ve felt over that would’ve been even more difficult to bear.

In a way, he was grateful for how things turned out; grateful that Dean had pushed for his number, that Dean had been willing to extend a hand in friendship even after Cas had essentially rejected him that night. He’d been suspicious that Dean’s motivations for establishing a friendship with him had lain entirely in keeping everyone else happy, which meant ensuring there were no hard feelings between them if they were going to be forced to socialize occasionally. He was more than pleasantly surprised to discover that Dean seemed genuinely interested in  _ him _ , apart from how he may influence Hannah’s opinion of Dean. And now that he had confirmation that their fumbling not-relationship had officially achieved  _ it’s complicated _ status, whatever that was supposed to mean, it somehow felt wrong to betray Dean’s trust now.

Luckily the doorbell rang before he could answer. As he stood up, he shrugged and told her, “It’s complicated.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Please don’t say anything to anyone,” Cas begged yet again as they neared the ranch on Saturday morning. “Let me handle things with Dean in my own way.”

“I know, Cas. I promised I’d stay out of it.” Hannah held up a hand to stop Cas’s inevitable next request, if all their conversations since breakfast were any indication. “And I promise I won’t say anything to Eileen, or Sam, or anyone else. It’s entirely in your capable and not at all socially awkward hands.”

Cas glanced away from the road long enough to glare at his sister, who continued primly looking out the front window, smoothing out the buttons of her already perfectly smooth blouse. He sighed in resignation and rolled his eyes back to the deserted highway in front of them.

“All I ask is that at some point today you’ll give us enough personal space to have a private conversation.”

Hannah finally dropped her hands to her lap and smiled. “I swear it.”

Cas nodded and focused on turning onto the ranch’s driveway, navigating his boat of a car through the wide gate, cringing as they rumbled across the cattle grate, and down the dusty road. “Thank you.”

The Novaks pulled up beside Dean’s Impala at five to nine. Jesse greeted them and led them over to where Dean had seven horses saddled up and tied to a fence rail waiting to go. Sam, Eileen, Cesar, and Alex came out of the barn a moment later, but Dean was nowhere in sight.

“Dean had to help Garth cut a few cattle out of the herd and get them loaded up for auction,” Jesse told them. “He should be back any minute.”

“We’re always waiting on the old man,” Alex said, stroking the flank of her dappled grey mare and whispering a few words to the horse as she untied the reins and then climbed into the saddle.

“Someone has to work around here,” Cesar teased her as he mounted his own horse.

“Is everyone riding today?” Hannah asked, looking around the large group in surprise.

“We thought it best to get the horses used to riding in larger groups,” Cesar replied. “I hope you don’t mind, but Dean was rather insistent that we all take a family vacation day and quote _have a fucking good time or whatever_.”

Cas snorted, a little disappointed that the larger group might make it harder to get Dean on his own, and then turned at the sound of pounding hoofbeats rounding the far side of the barn. He’d seen Dean atop Jericho last week, but this was the first time he’d seen him ride like _this_. Before, Cas had been on horseback beside Dean as they slowly meandered along desert trails. Now Dean came galloping up at full speed, bent low over the horse’s dark mane. He was even wearing a cowboy hat to keep the glare of the rising sun out of his eyes. Just to be dramatic, Dean had Jericho rear up before settling her down with a pat to her shoulder and a few words muttered in her ear. When Dean finally glanced up at him, he was struggling not to grin at the astonished wonder pasted across Cas’s face.

“Hey, you made it,” Dean said, not bothering to dismount. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s no trouble, and you’re not late,” Cas said. “We only just arrived.”

Dean smiled down at him and nodded, glancing up to see everyone else mounting up. Jessie still stood by Hannah and Cas, ready to offer assistance if they needed it.

“You remember which horse was yours last week?” Dean asked, his lip twitching into a restrained grin at his little test.

“Of course,” Cas replied, deliberately walking toward Hannah’s horse before making a last minute detour to his own. He unhitched the reins and climbed up into the saddle before Jesse could even offer to help. Hannah was only a few seconds behind Cas, and she gave Dean a little salute as soon as she was ready to ride.

“Howdy, y’all,” Dean said with an exaggerated drawl and a tip of his hat, which earned eye rolls from Sam and Alex and a snort from Cesar. “So who’s leading this posse?”

“Seems like the sort of thing you should probably plan before the guests arrive next time, Dean,” Sam said.

“And because he likes to complain about shit, Sam’s the winner. Let’s get this show on the road, Sammy.”

Sam’s mouth dropped open before Eileen leaned over with a finger to his chin to push it shut again. She gave him a reassuring little nod and he moved to the front of the group, glaring at Dean the entire way. Cas watched the entire exchange between them, biting his lip so he wouldn’t laugh at the hearty wink Dean gave his brother as he passed.

With Sam out front, Eileen moved up to ride beside Hannah. Alex, Jesse, and Cesar followed them single-file, leaving Dean and Cas to bring up the rear. Sam led them down a different trail than they’d ridden the previous weekend, but from his conversations with Dean, Cas knew that the ranch was a veritable maze of intertwining trails over thousands of acres. He’d worried Dean would find himself irrevocably lost, riding in circles past the same cactus until he succumbed to dehydration or exposure. Dean had laughed at that and ensured Cas he knew every trail like the back of his hand. Cas wasn’t quite as sure of Sam’s knowledge of the property, but as long as Dean was along for the ride, he felt confident he wouldn’t let Sam accidentally lead them all to an untimely demise.

Cas hadn’t expected an opportunity to talk with Dean alone to arise so early in the morning. He suddenly felt vastly underprepared, and as a result he’d spent the first few minutes of their ride traveling along beside Dean in companionable silence and enjoying the view-- both of the morning desert landscape and the sight of Dean riding at his side.

Whether consciously or not, he and Dean had fallen a little ways back from the group less than five minutes into their ride. They’d barely exchanged more than a greeting, so Cas decided to work his way up to potentially terrifying confessions by easing into it with a little light conversation.

“It really is beautiful out here at this time of day. I can see why you ride every morning.”

Dean snorted. “It’s fucking beautiful at every time of day. I ride every morning to make sure the trails are clear, get an idea of what the wildlife’s up to, keep an eye on the property, make sure there’s nothing hinky going on out here.”

Cas nodded at that. “So it’s not purely for pleasure.”

“Nah, more like basic security. Plus if some hippie weirdo decided to set up camp out here and got bit by a rattler or eaten by coyotes or something, that’s the sort of thing I’d like to know about.”

Cas laughed outright. “Do you get a lot of hippie weirdo squatters on your property?”

Dean shrugged and grinned at him. “Just one. I was a kid, and we didn’t have near as much land back then, but I remember my dad chasing the guy off with a shotgun, yelling about how his insurance didn’t cover funerals for idiots who got themselves killed trying to commune with nature. It left an impression.”

“Sounds like a memorable experience.”

“That’s one word for it,” Dean said, the grin slipping a little before he cleared his throat. “Once in a while I’ll run across a little plot of weed someone planted, or evidence that some asshole was out here hunting. Caught a fair number of people at it, too. Mostly they apologize and leave without giving me shit, but the one poacher that didn’t had Fish and Wildlife waiting for him when he got back to his truck.”

Dean grinned over at him, looking extraordinarily pleased with himself. Cas had to take a deep breath to steady himself, but just looking at Dean right now, he knew he was ready to talk.

“Dean--”

“Ah, shit,” Dean said, cutting him off. “What the fuck are you doing, Sam? The mountain ride was supposed to be this afternoon.”

There was no way Sam could hear him barely muttering under his breath, but it gave Cas a moment to collect himself and notice their surroundings again before Dean urged his horse on to catch up to the rest of the group. Cas’s horse kept pace, following Dean on instinct, but his stomach sank.

“C’mon, Cas. The trail narrows out up ahead. Just follow Cesar, and I’ll be right behind you.”

Cas nodded, catching a quick glimpse of the look of disappointment on Dean’s face before guiding his horse up behind Cesar’s. He spent the next hour trying to convince himself that all hope wasn’t lost, and that he’d get another chance to talk with Dean alone. He took comfort in the fact that Dean had seemed just as annoyed as he felt at the disruption to their conversation, and did his best to enjoy the ride up and across the narrow mountain path.

At the summit, Sam paused long enough for them to drink in the view. It wasn’t a particularly tall mountain, but the desert stretched out around them for miles in all directions, very much the way it did at Kitt Peak.

“This would be a wonderful spot for stargazing,” Cas said, looking up at the empty blue midday sky instead of out at the desert below.

Dean scoffed at that. “Yeah, but getting up here in the dark would be a bitch. Getting back down would be worse. You did bring your telescope, right?”

Cas rolled his eyes fondly at Dean. “Of course, Dean. I brought the eight inch. If you enjoy that, I’ll bring a larger one next time.”

A devilish grin slowly spread across Dean’s face as Sam led the rest of the group down the other side of the mountain. Dean held Cas back long enough to lean in and whisper, “Is that a flirtation?”

Cas only had a split-second to decide how to respond, but Dean had been the one to open the door this time. Cas was absolutely going to walk through it. He leaned in and looked Dean right in the eyes, putting every ounce of his intent into his next words. “Do you want it to be?”

Before Dean could reply, Cas turned his horse to catch up with the others, leaving Dean blinking after him in shock. He may not have been able to continue their conversation right then and there, but Cas rode the rest of the way back down the mountain feeling like he’d at least achieved one small victory.

When they arrived back at the barn, they let their horses go in a pen adjoining the main arena to get a cool drink of water and rest. Jesse led the tired riders around to the training arena while Sam and Dean went to the barn to fetch a couple of coolers loaded down with sandwiches and cold drinks. Cas overheard a few loud snippets of Dean’s side of their conversation, but could barely make out Sam’s words in return. From what he could hear as he passed the open barn door, Dean was rather boisterous in his displeasure at Sam switching up the riding schedule. He heard Sam laugh, and what sounded like a teasing reply from Sam’s tone, followed by what he initially mistook for an animal growling before he realized it was Dean speaking. Cas was almost relieved he couldn’t make out the angry words, because it allowed him to imagine hearing that voice speaking some extremely not-angry words much closer to him and in an entirely different context. He let a shiver run through him at the thought and did his best to shake it off.

Cas picked up his pace when he heard their voices getting closer so they wouldn’t catch him eavesdropping, but he couldn’t miss the contrite look on Sam’s face nor the glare Dean shot at his brother before smoothing his features back out and taking a deep breath to calm himself down. It did, however, give Cas an excuse to jog back to Dean to offer him a hand.

“Let me help,” Cas said, taking a basket piled high with single serving bags of potato chips, napkins and paper plates that Dean had perched atop a huge cooler he was struggling to carry.

Sam shot his brother another apologetic look and took off at as brisk a pace as he could manage with his own heavy cooler. Cas shuffled the basket so he was carrying it against one hip as Dean readjusted his grip on the cooler.

“Thanks, Cas. I was afraid I was gonna leave a breadcrumb trail the whole way like Hansel and Gretel.”

“Let me take one side,” Cas offered, holding out a hand. “We wouldn’t want any wicked witches picking up our trail.”

Dean shrugged and set the cooler down. They shuffled around and each grabbed one handle on either side. It was heavier than Cas was expecting, and he nearly dropped the basket readjusting his balance to compensate for the weight.

“You sure you got it, He Man?”

Cas ignored the jibe and countered with his customary brand of grumpy logic. “If you intend to do this sort of thing on a regular basis, you might consider investing in a wagon.”

“Got a couple wagons already. The big hay wagon, for one. And I think I got Sam’s old little red wagon stashed up in the attic somewhere.”

“I’m serious, Dean. While it would be amusing to see you pulling around a child’s toy wagon filled with snack foods, they do make carts with wheels that can handle this terrain but would save you both time and energy, especially if you and Sam won’t be conducting these programs yourselves and you’ll be expecting your employees to do this labor. It’s something to consider.”

They walked through the shade of a few palo verdes and several ironwood trees just shedding the last of their brilliant magenta blooms, and Cas kicked himself for wasting another perfectly good opportunity to talk with Dean. What the hell had he been thinking, complaining about _carts_. At least he’d offered Dean some practical advice that he seemed to have agreed with. It wasn’t much, but it kept Cas from opening his mouth again so he could insert his other foot.

Halfway to their destination, Cas could see where Sam was already unpacking sandwiches and handing them out to the rest of the group, who were arranging themselves around a large picnic table at the edge of the thicket of trees. He debated asking Dean to set the cooler down for a moment so he could give himself a conversational mulligan, but he’d still feel compelled to rush through what he needed to say and decided it was best not to say anything yet. Dean pulled him out of his tangled thoughts with an entirely distracting comment.

“You shoulda been here two weeks ago. Half the desert was on fire with these.” Dean reached up and absently plucked a wilting blossom from the closest branch above their heads.

“That sounds lovely. I wish I’d seen it.”

“There’s always next year.”

Dean just grinned at him as they reached the end of the picnic table and set down their burdens. Since he’d carried it that far, Cas handed out everything in his basket, including the homemade chocolate chip cookies at the bottom, while Dean served cold sodas and bottled water from the cooler. When he sat down across from Dean, Cas noticed the magenta flower beside his plate and smiled over at Dean, who was very pointedly engaged entirely in devouring his sandwich.

“Slow it down, old man,” Alex said with a look of mild horror as she watched Dean eat. “You’re gonna give us all indigestion by proxy.”

“That your official diagnosis, doc?”

She rolled her eyes at Dean but Jesse backed her up. “As her attending, I’ll sign off on the paperwork. Back in vet school I treated a starving wolf who had better table manners than you do.”

Cas thought back to the growling noise Dean had made in the barn earlier, and chewed his sandwich thoughtfully as he observed Dean. It wasn’t an entirely inaccurate description. Dean caught him staring, but Cas didn’t look away. He was a little too far down another dangerously inappropriate avenue of thought for polite company to realize it.

“Cas seems cool with it,” Dean said, and then took another huge bite.

While his mouth was otherwise occupied and Dean was powerless to defend himself, Cesar replied, “Looks more like he’s already succumbed. It’s like watching a train derail. Morbidly fascinating.”

Dean just shrugged and kept right on eating.

Lunch passed quickly with lighthearted conversation. Cas and Hannah both felt welcome and at home, even among this group of people who were clearly as close as any family Cas had ever known. Dean finished quickly, which was no wonder considering how focused he’d been on eating. As soon as he was done, he excused himself and headed over to a small storage shed beside several rows of benches along one side of the arena. He came back out a moment later carrying several large bundles of rope and set them down on one of the benches before disappearing back inside. Eileen shooed everyone away from the table and over to Dean just as he reemerged holding yet another rope wound into a coil.

“All right everyone, who wants to learn a few roping tricks?”

Dean let the length of rope slip through his fingers a bit and suddenly Cas realized it wasn’t just any old rope when Dean began twirling the looped end casually at his side. He must’ve had a rather daft look on his face, because Dean grinned and winked at him before sending the loop of the lasso flying neatly around a nearby fence post and pulling it tight.

“It’s a little trickier snaring a running bull, but we’ll start with inanimate objects.”

Cas hesitantly went to the bench and picked up his own length of rope, almost immediately dropping several loops of the coil to puddle around his feet. He glanced around nervously, wondering how idiotic he was about to look surrounded by people who did this for a living. He was comforted by the fact that nearly everyone else was having just as difficult a time as he was. Sam was focused on explaining the process to Hannah and Alex, while Jesse and Cesar joked about how they spent too much time with the horses and not enough roping cattle.

Cas moved over so he could get a better look at what Dean’s hands were doing, the way his wrist moved to keep the rope spinning before flicking it gently around the post again. He watched several times as Dean lassoed the post, walked over and bent over to slip the rope off before returning to where Cas stood to start again.

“Think you got it yet?” Dean asked after the third time. “You wanna give it a try?”

“I’m not sure I’m coordinated enough for this.”

Dean smiled at him and tossed his rope to the ground, stepping close to Cas and taking the hand that held the loop of rope, moving Cas’s wrist in a slow circle. “Just like this, but faster. Just get up a good rhythm first. When you go to throw it, follow through like you were throwing a baseball, and you’re good to go.”

Cas looked at him uncertainly. “I don’t know how to do that either.”

“What, throw a baseball?” Dean asked, and Cas shrugged. “You gotta know how to throw something, though. Darts? Bowling balls? Wadded up paper at a trash can?”

“I’ll do my best,” Cas replied, feeling a smile creep across his face despite his nerves. “I did once throw knives at a renaissance festival. It couldn’t be all that different.”

“Knives? Yeah, as long as you didn’t stab anyone by accident, you’ll be fine.”

“I’ve never stabbed anyone by accident,” Cas replied, letting the smile bloom into something a little bit sinister.

Dean laughed and shook his head. “Now you’re just delaying, buddy. Just throw it already.”

Cas spun the rope at his side, exactly as Dean showed him. It took several tries before he was able to make it loop through the air above his head, and several more tries before he worked up the confidence to send the loop hurtling toward the post. On his very first try, he successfully roped something. Dean was impressed as he untangled the loop of rope from around his shoulders and bent down to pick up his hat that Cas had knocked off.

“Well there you go. If you aim sixty degrees to the left of your target, you’ll hit it every time.”

“Dean I’m sorry, are you okay?” Cas said, examining Dean for injuries.

Dean smiled, brushing the dust from his hat and setting it back atop his head. “It’s nothing, Cas. Not even rope burn. Least it wasn’t knives, right?”

“Perhaps I’m not cut out to be a cowboy.”

Dean smiled at him and stepped in closer. “You’re great with the horses, and even Sam’s out of practice and he’s been doing this since he was a kid.”

The two of them watched as everyone else tried to get the knack of even spinning the lasso. At least Sam had managed that much, despite missing the post two throws in a row.

“I see what you mean.”

“You wouldn’t expect me to show up at your job and be able to do it as well as you can after five minutes, right?”

Cas smiled at that and Dean reached out to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before stepping away, scooping up his lasso, and then leaping over the fence into the arena.

“Hey Sammy,” Dean called back from halfway across to where Jericho was pacing excitedly in the smaller pen on the opposite side. “You wanna go let one of the calves loose?”

Sam nodded and headed to a different pen where a group of calves that Cas hadn’t even noticed until now were standing around quietly looking bored. Cas had a feeling they wouldn’t be bored for long. Dean let Jericho into the arena through a narrow gate and climbed into the saddle. He made a show of getting everyone’s attention with a sharp whistle and a wave of his hat before Jericho took off running toward the single calf that Sam had released from its pen. In just a few seconds, Dean had roped the calf, jumped down from his horse practically tackling the animal, and looped the rope around three of the calf’s legs.

Cas couldn’t help himself and applauded wildly, to Dean’s utter delight. Dean untied the calf and let it up, taking a dramatic bow.

“For my next trick,” he said. “Actually, there is no next trick. Anyone up for some team penning?”

“Ooh, me!” Alex replied, gratefully dropping her tangled lasso and scrambling over the fence.

Jesse and Cesar exchanged a brief glance and followed after her at a more sedate pace. Sam exchanged a few signs with Eileen before the two of them followed. Hannah was right behind them, and Cas refused to be the only one left out. Dean released all their horses into the arena as Cas climbed over the fence.

“Okay, I guess we’ll do two teams of four, fastest time wins,” Dean said as they each found their horses.

“What do we win, boss?” Jesse asked.

“Bragging rights.”

“I can live with that.”

Dean divided them right down the middle, putting Hannah, Jesse, Cesar, and Alex up against, Sam, Eileen, Dean, and himself. Everyone else seemed content that they would be evenly matched, with Dean and Cesar each leading their respective teams.

“Just don’t fire me when we kick your ass, Dean,” Cesar teased.

“Yeah, I’d be a fucking moron to fire a horse trainer who could kick my ass at penning. Might fire you if you don’t.”

Cesar laughed and graciously allowed Dean’s team to go first, riding down to the cattle pen to release the entire herd of twenty or so calves into the arena. Cas was distracted by the miniature stampede and nearly missed Dean asking if everyone knew the rules. He’d read about the event on the internet and watched a video or two, but he felt entirely unprepared to actually perform any of the skills involved. Luckily Hannah raised her hand and asked for a demonstration so he didn’t have to.

“Jesse, Cesar, and Alex. Let’s show them how it’s done.”

Without another word of warning, the four of them bolted off toward the cluster of calves. Dean rode right into the middle of where they’d huddled together and separated three of them out, cutting them off from the others and driving them toward where Jesse and Cesar were waiting to guide them across the arena toward a smaller fenced-in pen. Alex had already turned and raced back to open the gate, while Dean, Jesse, and Cesar herded the three chosen calves into the pen, peeling off to give Alex enough room to slam the gate shut again. The entire spectacle took less than a minute before Alex opened the gate and let the calves out to return to the herd.

“That’s all there is to it,” Dean announced, trotting back over to where the others waited. “Still wanna give it a try?” he asked, with a cautious glance at Cas.

“Definitely,” he replied, grateful that he sounded far more confident than he felt, and Hannah just nodded, a bit wide-eyed, but determined.

“Okay then. I’ll cut, and Cas, you saw what Alex did with the gate. You think you can handle that?”

Cas returned Dean’s gaze and nodded once. “I believe I understand the mechanics of opening and closing a door, yes.”

Dean laughed, and since he couldn’t reach Cas, he patted his horse’s neck instead. “You got this, then.” Louder so that everyone could hear, Dean counted down from three and then they were off.

Cas barely had time to wonder if someone was timing them, and he barely even registered Dean racing ahead to the little cluster of cows before he found himself at the gate latch and wondered for one brief and borderline hysterical moment how to make his horse go backward so he could pull the wide gate open. He released the latch with a click and he felt a rush of sheer ecstasy at the creak of hinges. Without any sort of suggestion from him, his horse knew exactly what to do. It was a good thing, since three longhorns were barreling down on him, guided along by Sam and Eileen, with Dean bringing up the rear. The gate latched shut again, and he heard Hannah whoop with delight from the other end of the arena.

“Forty-three seconds,” Cesar called out. “Not bad, but could be better.”

“Oh yeah?” Dean grinned at him, and then winked back at Cas. “Prove it.”

Cesar tossed the stopwatch to Dean, who caught it easily. He pushed a few buttons to reset the timer and then nodded over at Cesar.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Cesar conferred with his teammates, laying out their strategy, and then gave the same countdown Dean had. Cas found himself cheering for Hannah, who’d volunteered to herd the cows rather than waiting at the gate for them. One of the calves tried to make a break for freedom, but Cesar spotted it and made an end-run around Hannah to guide it back into line. The gate clicked shut and a cheer went up from the entire team.

“Nice save there, buddy,” Dean called out. “Forty-four seconds.”

“No way.”

“You want a mulligan?” Dean asked. “It’s not firing bad.”

“In that case, I should probably get back to work,” Cesar said with a sigh.

“Same here,” Jesse added, cutting off Dean’s objection with a raised hand. “Laramie was showing signs of going into labor this morning. At the very least I need to check and see how she’s doing.”

“Guess I should be there, too,” Alex added, giving everyone a wave and following after Jesse and Cesar.

Dean lifted his hat just long enough to run a hand through his hair.  “I’m still impressed I convinced them to take half a day off.”

“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be back around for dinner,” Alex assured him.

“So,” Dean said, looking around at what was left of the group. “Anyone else wanna bail?”

Sam signed something for Eileen, who nodded. “We, uh… we’re gonna go get started on dinner, then.”

“Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?” Dean asked with a smirk. By the way Sam blanched, Cas took it to mean Dean’s teasing wasn’t far off the mark.

“We really are gonna make dinner, but yeah. It’s hard to get any privacy when you’re living in your brother’s guest room.”

“How do you think I feel then?” Dean asked, but he was smiling. “Fine, but don’t do anything funny in my kitchen.”

Eileen gave him a thumbs up and rode away with Sam. That just left Dean, Cas, and Hannah. Dean studied the two of them for a moment and then sighed.

“Before Sam fucked up the morning ride and everyone bailed on us, the plan was to do the mountain ride this afternoon,” Dean said. “If you’re up for it we can do a fast ride, we could herd these calves back to their pen to save Garth the trouble, or I could just kinda show you--”

Dean stopped mid sentence as he spotted a man on horseback just outside the arena fence, waving enthusiastically to get their attention.

“Well, speak of the devil. Hey Garth.”

“I see I missed all the fun.”

“We’ll make it up to you. Auction go well?”

“Yup. Bess is taking the paperwork to your office, and then we’re gonna get these babies back to their mamas.”

“You need a hand with it?” Dean asked.

“I wouldn’t say no.” Garth grinned at the three of them.

“Hannah, you met Garth, right?” Dean asked, and Hannah nodded and waved at him. “Cas, this is Garth, Garth, Hannah’s brother, Castiel.”

“It’s good to meet you. How do you feel about driving cattle? Because I believe Dean just volunteered you for it.”

“It’s not like we’re driving the entire herd all the way to Abilene,” Dean said. “Even a couple of greenhorns can move two dozen calves a few hundred yards.”

Cas narrowed his eyes at Dean and exchanged a confident and knowing glance with Hannah. She nodded once and then a sly grin spread across her face as she kicked her horse into action, followed immediately by Cas. Dean took a strange sort of delight in watching Hannah and Cas practice rounding up the small herd and driving the cattle back and forth across the arena several times, while Garth watched on approvingly.

“They’ve done this before, haven’t they?” Garth asked Dean after their first successful roundup.

“Sure looks like they have,” Dean replied. “And here I thought they were both city slickers.”

The next time Hannah and Cas rode their way, Dean called out to them.

“Did you two secretly grow up in LA’s hidden cattle ranch country? Either that or you’re both naturals at this.”

“We’ve never herded cattle,” Hannah said, laughing as Cas sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Our uncle raises sheep.”

“Way to undersell it, Cas,” Hannah said, leaning over to clip him on the shoulder with her fingertips. “He’s got the largest herd of sheep in the country, and he just sort of lets them run free over half the state of Wyoming. Twice a year we have to round them all up and bring them home for shearing and culling. It’s a sort of family tradition that at least once before you head off to college, you have to spend a summer at Uncle Marv’s for the roundup.”

“Big family, then?” Garth asked them both, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I was an only child myself. Don’t even know what it must be like. My wife Bess, on the other hand, she’s from a huge family. A few of her cousins even work for Dean, here.”

Dean smiled awkwardly and nodded, gratefully spotting Bess coming toward them, stopping to pet and speak quietly to a few of the calves as she wound her way on foot through the herd. He sometimes wondered why they even bothered doing this on horseback, when Bess could practically lead all the cattle like Little Bo Peep leading her lost sheep home. She just had a way with the cows, and they all seemed to love her. Probably because they didn’t know about her brisket recipe.

Introductions went around, and then Bess whistled out to the calves. They turned as a group and followed her toward the gate while Cas and Hannah sat staring at the strange spectacle. Garth watched Bess go with hearts in his eyes.

“They love her almost as much as I do.” He turned in his saddle and addressed Dean. “So what’s the plan for this afternoon. I thought it was family vacation day. Where’d everyone get off to?”

Dean tried not to think about Sam and Eileen _getting off_ anywhere, and instead looked over at Cas. It was probably a mistake, because Cas was biting his lower lip trying not to laugh, and Dean’s mind raced through a dozen increasingly inappropriate thoughts before he wrangled them back around to safer ground and he cleared his throat.

“We were supposed to be heading out for a mountain ride, but Sam thought it would be funny to mess with the schedule this morning.”

Garth nodded thoughtfully. “Well it sounds like you need to hammer out a more permanent schedule then. Why don’t you let me and Bess give you a hand with that? It’s still a few hours until dinner, and Bess made snickerdoodles and fresh lemonade. We wouldn’t want to ruin your appetite for the big barbecue, but that’s no reason to skimp on life’s little pleasures.”

“You guys okay with that?” Dean asked, a little hesitantly. “Now that you got an idea of the kind of stuff we can plan into a full day trip, we should probably work out the details.”

Cas felt his stomach sink a bit, but he understood that this business had to come first. It was the main reason he and Hannah were there, after all. Yes, they’d been having fun-- having a _family vacation day_ \-- but he and Hannah had also been guinea pigs of a sort. They were supposed to be providing objective feedback as if they were guests. Not part of Dean’s family.

It hurt to remember that for some reason, but for Dean’s sake, Cas would do his best. It didn’t hurt that Garth and Bess seemed like lovely people. And Cas would never turn down freely-offered snickerdoodles.

They sat in the shade on the porch of Bess and Garth’s little bungalow for several hours during the hottest part of the afternoon, sipping lemonade and finalizing all the plans to begin offering day trips to the ranch during the second weekend in July. Dean put Garth in charge of interviewing potential prospects for the new ranch hand positions, mostly because of Hannah’s faith in Garth as a “people person,” finger quotes included.

Dean was fine with that. He trusted himself to hire the most competent people to work his ranch, but Hannah was right. It was an entirely different skill to work with the public than to work with the animals, and Garth was the perfect man for sussing out the best potential candidates. He went on to prove his people skills, drawing out nearly as much of Cas’s personal history as Dean had over the last several weeks. In return, Garth spilled more of Dean’s personal secrets, as well. Cas should’ve guessed how interesting an afternoon he was in for when Garth’s first words about his boss were as delightfully contradictory and yet as entirely relatable as they were. _Dean could start a fight in an empty house, but deep down inside, he's just a big ol' Teddy bear._

And things had only gotten more interesting from there.

With everything from the daily schedule of events to the logistics of catering for their guests taken care of, despite long detours through increasingly friendly conversation, eventually they parted so Dean would have time to tend to their horses before dinner. Back at the barn, Cas volunteered to help Dean with the horses while Hannah went up to the hay loft to play with the kittens. He’d thought it might be the perfect opportunity to have a few private moments to talk with Dean, but again fate interfered. Laramie had gone into labor while they were at Garth’s, and instead of confessing his feelings for Dean, Cas bore witness to the miracle of birth.

He could hardly complain, watching as Jesse helped pull the foal from his mother as Dean soothed her through the last of her labor. The spindly-legged black foal took just a few minutes to get to his feet before Dean was at Cas’s side, watching with the same wide-eyed wonder that Cas felt. He studied Dean for just a moment before blurting it out.

“This never gets old for you, does it?”

“What?”

“Seeing the miracle of new life, knowing what this horse will grow into, the long and happy life it will have because of you.”

Dean flushed at that and looked down at his boots. “Not really ‘cause of me. He’d do his thing whether I was here or not.”

“Maybe so,” Cas said, waiting for Dean to look back at him before going on. “But you bear witness to all of it, and tend all of them. You have a benevolent soul, Dean Winchester.”

“Christ, Cas,” Dean said, letting out a heavy breath as his cheeks flushed.

“It’s the truth,” Cas pressed on. “It’s evident in everything you do, the way you care for your animals and the land, the way you’ve created a family among the people who work for you, and the way you’ve made me feel welcome here even though I’m just the socially awkward brother of your business partner.”

Dean shook his head, ignoring most of what Cas had said to focus on the last bit. “Shit, Cas. You’re family now too. I, uh… I mean, Hannah, too. And I wouldn’t say you’re socially awkward.”

Cas grinned at that, raising one eyebrow. “Are you sure? I mean, I seem to be making you uncomfortable right now.”

Dean laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “Hell, maybe a little, but not in a bad way.”

“I was unaware that there was a _good_ variety of discomfort…” Cas began, trailing off in hopes that Dean would pick it up. He’d nearly forgotten they were still standing in the barn, and that they weren’t entirely alone. Jesse and Cesar may have stepped into the feed room to get cleaned up, but just as Dean opened his mouth to reply, Hannah returned from the hay loft with a contented smile on her face. Cas shot her a glare over Dean’s shoulder, and she gasped and took a half step backward when she realized what she’d likely intruded on. She mouthed the word _sorry_ at Cas just as Dean turned around to see what had snared Cas’s attention.

Dean cleared his throat and stepped back from Cas, taking a deep breath before casing one last disappointed glance at Cas.

“How are the kittens doing?”

“Oh, um,” Hannah started, taking a few cautious steps closer. “They’re wonderful, as usual. It’s amazing how quickly they grow.”

“Well, you missed something even more amazing down here,” Jesse said, rounding the corner from the feed room, and bearing a handful of treats for Laramie. The horse gratefully chewed the crunchy little bites while Hannah finally noticed her new foal.

“Oh wow. He’s beautiful. What’s his name?”

Dean shrugged and turned to wink at Cas. “Don’t have one yet.”

Hannah studied the little horse for a minute before proclaiming, “He looks like like an Orion.”

“He does?” Dean and Cas both said at once, while Jesse laughed.

“Well, doesn’t he?” Hannah asked.

“That okay with you, mama? Is your boy here a mighty hunter?” Jesse asked Laramie, and she answered with a snort against his palm as she licked up the last of her treats. “I guess that’s a yes.”

“Orion it is,” Dean said, smiling at Hannah. “It ain’t any worse than Heliostat.”

“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I,” Cas grumbled.

Dean grinned and bumped Cas’s shoulder with his own. Cas missed the all too brief contact the moment Dean leaned away again, but the gesture had been more than enough to bring Cas’s smile back.

“I told you it was a great name, Cas. You know I’m just messing with you, right? And she’ll grow into the name. Give her a chance.”

Cas nodded. “I say she still looks more like a Sunflower anyway.”

“Hey, guys,” Sam called out as he entered the barn. “Dinner’s ready whenever you are.”

“Well I guess that’s our cue,” Cesar said, dropping a hand onto Jesse’s shoulder.

Alex stuck her head out of the office where she’d been recording the details of Orion’s birth. “Was that Sam?” she asked of the sudden crowd of people passing by the door.

“Soup’s on,” Dean said. “Get a move on before Sam inhales it all.”

Sam scoffed but didn’t try to defend himself. Cas was only now beginning to realize that the day was almost over, and with the entire ranch now convening for dinner he was unlikely to have any chance of talking with Dean alone. He’d been waiting for an opportunity, but he was beginning to believe he may need to invent his own opportunity. As they walked behind the crowd, Cas was distracted by an increasingly ludicrous parade of potential scenarios to get Dean alone for just a few minutes. He came back to the present moment when Dean surprised him, casually looping an arm around his shoulders.

“So, Cas. Would you spend a hundred and twenty five bucks of your hard earned money for a day like today?” Dean asked, a thread of uncertainty in his voice.

Cas took a few steadying breaths, letting himself enjoy the feeling of Dean’s arm across his shoulders, and answered truthfully. “I’d probably be willing to spend a lot more than that.”

Dean considered that for a moment, turning to look at Cas as they walked. To Cas’s dismay, he dropped his arm but didn’t move any further from Cas’s side. “Huh.”

“What, huh?” Cas asked. “How can that be surprising. I’ve had a wonderful time today.”

Dean slowed his steps, letting everyone else disappear around the side of his house. “I had a great time, too.”

Cas smiled at him as the slowly setting sun cast a brilliant bronze light across Dean’s face. He could’ve stood there watching the light shift through all the colors of the sunset, mesmerized by Dean’s green eyes glinting with gold. It would be the perfect time to say something. He was even half convinced by the way they stood staring at one another that Dean was _hoping_ he’d say something. Footsteps crunched across the gravel behind them, and again it was too late.

“Guess we’re not late,” Garth said, patting each of them on the shoulder as he and Bess walked past where they’d stopped. “Well, come on, don’t make everyone else wait on our account.”

Cas huffed out a discontented breath, and he noticed Dean reach up and pinch the bridge of his nose. He was almost _certain_ Dean had been hoping he’d said something now, and he wasn’t sure if that made their current situation better or worse.

As they rounded the side of the house, the smell of roasting meat from the smoker finally hit him, and it was almost enough to make up for his frustration. It helped that Dean seemed equally enchanted by the aroma, despite casting him another almost apologetic glance as he made his way through the gathered crowd to pull the roast out of the smoker. Everyone gathered around the table, much as they had at lunch, but there was no urgency now; no schedule to meet or business to handle.

Cas sat across from Dean, so it was easy to watch him all through dinner. In the light of lanterns set along the entire table, Dean practically glowed as he talked and laughed with his family. Just as often as Dean caught Cas watching him, Cas caught Dean quietly smiling across the table at him. Despite the energy and lively conversation of the crowd-- and the steadily growing need to confess his feelings and intentions to Dean-- Cas felt at peace.

After dinner, Cas helped clear the table. He’d stopped thinking in terms of needing a strategy to get Dean on his own and given in to the whims of fate. He still had his last-ditch failsafe plan, which consisted of dragging Dean back to the barn under some flimsy pretense before he and Hannah left for the evening. He’d considered claiming to have dropped his wallet, or perhaps wishing to see Orion one more time. It lacked a certain degree of tact, but it kept him from panicking at the thought of leaving without having said anything at all. He wasn’t sure he could bear another week of concealing his feelings behind emoticons.

Eileen and Sam took up a post in the kitchen, parceling out leftovers for everyone to take a plate home. Helping with the dishes hadn’t granted him an opportunity, aside from standing shoulder to shoulder with Dean at the kitchen sink for a few minutes indulging in the absolute domesticity of the task. It wasn’t long before Alex came through the kitchen, picking up a plate to take home to Jody and Donna and saying her goodbyes. Only a few minutes later, Garth and Bess bid everyone a good night as well, and a curl of anticipation stirred in Cas’s chest. Jesse and Cesar were right on their heels, and as Sam wiped down the kitchen counter and Eileen put the last of the food in the fridge, Cas realized that he and Hannah were the only guests left. For a moment he wondered if they should make their excuses and leave; if maybe they were overstaying their welcome.

Dean stopped Eileen from shutting the fridge and reached inside for a beer. He turned and held one up in offer to Cas, and he gratefully accepted. Maybe his welcome had just been officially extended.

“I guess I’ll be driving home tonight,” Hannah said, eyeing Cas as he twisted the cap off his bottle.

“Keep dreaming, Hannah,” Cas replied, grinning at her as he took a sip. “It’s one beer, and I’ll still be a better driver than you when I’ve drunk it.”

“You’re probably right.”

“You can’t leave yet,” Dean said. “It’s just barely dark enough to see the stars, and I was promised an astronomy lesson.”

“That’s right,” Hannah said, elbowing her brother. “How could I forget you hauled that telescope out here.” She turned to Dean and spoke quietly as if everyone else in the kitchen couldn’t still hear her. “He debated for twenty minutes this morning over whether he should bring the big one or not.”

Dean grinned at that information, and grinned wider when Cas’s face flushed pink. Cas recovered admirably and took a swing at the innuendo Hannah had lobbed at him.

“Size isn’t everything,” Cas informed her. “What’s more important is knowing where to point it, and how to calibrate it.”

Dean snorted, and Cas tried to hold himself back to a pleased smirk instead of letting it grow into the victorious grin he felt threatening at his cheeks.

“Gross, Dean,” Sam said, shaking his head and following Eileen back out to the porch.

“I didn’t even say anything,” Dean yelled after his brother as he gave Cas a salacious wink. “Just because you went straight to the gutter doesn’t mean the rest of us did.”

Cas let go and grinned at him, as Hannah pretended not to notice and quietly followed Sam and Eileen out back. Dean glanced over at the empty doorway, but when he looked back at Cas the confident charm seemed to drain out of him. They were finally alone. That fact was overbearingly clear by the skyrocketing tension between them.

All day, Cas had been rehearsing what he wanted to say in this moment, and now that it was here his throat felt tight and his mouth went dry, and all his carefully arranged words had scattered like the fallen blossoms of the ironwood trees. Dean was just as lost for words as Cas was, and it didn’t help when they both found a conversational thread to latch on to at the same moment.

“So, you need some help with--” Dean started as Cas said, “I was wondering where it would be--”

They both stopped, Dean biting his lip and Cas looking down at his feet. His heart raced and he had no idea why this was suddenly so difficult. It hadn’t been difficult at that motel until Cas had walked away. He just needed to find a way to walk back to that moment.

“You first, I guess,” Dean said after an awkward moment, and Cas managed a weak smile.

“You probably know where it would be best to set up.”

Dean smiled bemusedly at him. “I probably don’t. I mean, I know the sky is that way,” he said, pointing up at the ceiling. “But I don’t know shit about telescopes, other than you aim ‘em at the sky. I guess anywhere outside would be a good start.”

Cas laughed. “Yeah, that’s about it. Stargazing works best where it’s darkest, in an area with unobstructed visibility, clear of trees and buildings.”

Dean thought about that for a few seconds and then nodded. “Okay, out on the other side of the mesquite trees out back. I can turn off the house lights and it should be plenty dark.”

Cas took a deep breath and felt the tension melt out of his shoulders. He hadn’t lost the ability to converse like a normal human, at least.

“In that case, I would appreciate a hand with the equipment.”

Dean nodded, looking relieved himself. “Lead the way.”

Cas handed Dean the tripod while he carried a large metal case with the telescope and lenses. They walked back through the kitchen to the back porch, where Sam, Eileen, and Hannah sat conversing in sign.

“Hey,” Dean called over to them from the back door. “You guys mind if I kill the lights back here? We’re gonna set up in the clearing out back.”

“Go ahead,” Sam said, standing up. “We’ve got some paperwork to read over with Hannah anyway. May as well get that taken care of now.”

“What, and miss the astronomy lesson?”

“If we get this done tonight, we’re talking about breaking ground on our house next Monday, Dean. Jupiter or whatever will still be up there tomorrow night, but the sooner we get this handled, the sooner you get your house to yourself again.”

Cas stood frozen for a moment as he noticed Hannah’s encouraging little smile. So she’d said something to Sam despite him asking her not to. Cas couldn’t find it in himself to be upset with her when all he felt was a rush of gratitude.

As Sam walked by on his way into the house, he patted Dean on the shoulder and gave him a solemn nod. Cas nearly missed the look of relief on Dean’s face as Sam stepped into the kitchen and switched off the porch lights.

“It’s not too dark out there to see, is it?” Sam asked. “I can grab a couple flashlights if you want.”

“We should be fine,” Cas said, reaching into his pocket for a small flashlight fitted with a red diffusing lens. He clicked it on and cast the reddish glow around the tiles of the patio. “White light ruins your night vision.”

“I think we’re good, Sam. Thanks.”

Sam nodded and shut the door, switching off the kitchen light and leaving them in almost total darkness aside from the little red light. Cas handed the light to Dean.

“You should probably lead the way now.”

Dean took the offered light, immediately shining it up beneath his chin, making himself appear ghoulish in the bloody glow. He widened his eyes and pulled a few horror faces while Cas shook his head and laughed.

It wasn’t a long walk through the trees, but the terrain was uneven, and Cas had been grateful that Dean knew where they were going. They stopped at the edge of a narrow gully, likely carved out by the last rain storm they’d had, however long ago that may have been. It felt like it hadn’t rained in months. Dean stopped and spun in a slow circle, scanning the horizon. They were probably about as far from any of the larger trees on the property as it was possible to get, on a small patch of hard-packed earth, mercifully also clear of cactus plants.

“This work for ya?” Dean asked as Cas set down the metal case.

“This is perfect,” Cas replied.

He took the tripod from Dean and began setting it up while Dean watched. Cas gave it a little jiggle to make sure it was stable, and then opened the case and gently lifted out the telescope. Dean helpfully shined the red light so Cas could see what he was doing, but the moment Dean saw the size of the scope he let out a low whistle.

“You said that’s the _small_ one?”

Cas rolled his eyes, but doubted Dean could tell in the dark, or while all his attention seemed to be focused on the scope. “If you think this is big you should see where I work.”

“All right, all right, quit bragging.”

“Can you hold the tripod still while I mount this?”

“Gee, Cas,” Dean said, grabbing one leg of the tripod while keeping the flashlight aimed where Cas needed it. “Does all astronomer talk sound this dirty?”

Cas couldn’t help the laugh, but shook his head and tried to sound scolding. “It’s a cold and lonely life. We have to get our thrills where we can.”

Dean was silent for a few minutes while Cas finished setting up and calibrating the equipment. He caught Dean staring at him with what seemed to be a considering frown in the dim light, but he quickly looked away, up at the sky. Cas took it for the opening he hoped it was.

“Tell me which stars you recognize.”

“What?” Dean asked, sounding a bit like he’d been caught out.

“Constellations, objects in the night sky you already know by name. Which are they? Everyone seems to know at least a few.”

“Uh,” Dean said, and then stopped to think. “Well there’s the big dipper. I think everyone knows that one. Little dipper, too. Cassiopeia looks like a big W. I kinda like that one. The brand we use on our cattle’s a stylized W, shaped like the constellation.”

Cas smiled at that. “So you’re relatively familiar with the night sky, then.”

“Like I said, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at it, but that don’t mean I know what all of it’s called.”

“Would you recognize Orion?” Cas asked, pointing his telescope at something and then leaning over the eyepiece to focus it.

Dean let out of soft huff. “The horse or the constellation?”

“I hope you can recognize the horse,” Cas replied without looking up from his work.

“Yeah, three stars in the hunter’s belt, three stars for his sword.” Dean pointed up at the constellation just above the horizon.

Cas stood and gestured at the eyepiece. “Actually there are two stars in his sword.”

“I count three, Cas.”

“Take a look for yourself.”

Dean raised an eyebrow at Cas but did as he was told. “Whoa, it looks like that star exploded.”

“It’s a nebula. It’s not one star. There’s at least 700 stars in various stages of evolution in that one cloud. And it’s only a small part of a much larger series of nebulae within Orion. And it contains at least a hundred and fifty solar systems that we’re only beginning to discover and name.”

“Holy shit,” Dean said, standing up and blinking at Cas. “Kinda makes a guy feel… insignificant in the grand scheme.”

“You’re no less significant than the great hunter in the sky, and the undiscovered multitudes of solar systems he may contain, Dean. Humanity may look up at him every night, and be none the wiser about what they’re truly seeing. A few points of light they recognize on sight. Just because they don’t see the vastness contained in just one point of light of his sword doesn’t mean the thousands of stars that compose it somehow cease to exist.”

“Did you just compare me to a nebula?”

Cas just shrugged. He hadn’t meant to essentially pour his heart out in metaphorical astronomical terms, nor did he notice just how close Dean was now standing to him. “I did mention the cold and lonely thing.”

Dean didn’t laugh. He nodded, and then took a deep breath, and spoke quietly. “I think I wanna kiss you now.”

Cas didn’t wait one second longer. He leaned in the last few inches and pressed his lips to Dean’s. It was nothing like the first tempestuous kiss they’d shared at the motel. This one was soft and cautious, but still overflowing with restrained need. He pulled back after a moment, his eyes now adjusted enough to the dark to see the mild panic flash through Dean’s eyes. He leaned in for one more quick kiss, hoping to dispel any lingering fears.

“You’re not gonna walk away this time, are you?” Dean asked. “‘Cause I don’t know if I could take that again.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Cas promised him.

Dean nodded, tightening the arm he’d somehow wound around Cas’s waist while they’d been kissing. “I gotta ask… what changed your mind? I mean, when you walked away I figured you must’ve had your reasons, and hell. I had my own reasons for letting you go.”

“Sometimes you discover that what you thought was a single small star is actually a nebula twenty light years wide.”

Dean just stared at him, and Cas sighed. “I was invited to consider the fact that my own happiness shouldn’t be contingent on anyone else’s. We only met because of our siblings’ business arrangement, and I hadn’t wanted my personal business to interfere with that. But the more I’ve gotten to know you, the more unsatisfactory that choice became.”

“So, now you’re ready to throw your sister under the bus?”

“Hardly,” Cas replied. “I just know now that whatever happens between you and me doesn’t have any bearing on your arrangements with my sister or your brother. Plus, in her own way, Hannah gave me her blessing.”

Dean snorted out a little laugh at that. “Yeah, that was Sam’s excuse for fucking up the morning ride. He thought the mountain ride was more _romantic_ than the trail I’d picked out.”

“It would’ve been if the trail had been wide enough for us to continue our conversation.”

“That’s what I told him!” Dean replied. “The idiot hadn’t been out that way in half a dozen years, and he forgot how it narrowed out for most of the ride.”

“So,” Cas said, pulling Dean in close again. “Does that mean you’d planned a more intimate ride for us this morning?” He frowned a little bit. “And does all cowboy talk sound this dirty?”

Dean laughed and pulled him in for a kiss, this one a lot dirtier than their last. “It’s a cold and lonely life.”

“Hopefully less cold and lonely now.”

They stayed out with the telescope for several hours. Amazingly enough, they actually found the time to look at a few stars. It was after midnight by the time they made it back to the house. Every light had been switched off, and they blinked at the sudden brightness when Dean turned on the light above the stove. A note on the kitchen table explained where everyone had disappeared to. Sam and Eileen had gone to bed a few hours earlier, and they’d invited Hannah to stay in the guest room.

“Damn,” Dean said quietly, scratching at the back of his head as Cas stood beside him reading the note.

“Is there a problem?”

“Well, this leaves us a couple options…”

Cas stiffened and his eyebrows dropped, half expecting Dean was about to suggest they wake up Hannah to go home for the night. Dean must have misinterpreted Cas’s concern and immediately tried to clarify.

“Or it leaves me a couple options, anyway. Seeing as there’s only my bed left unoccupied, I can either sleep on the living room couch or the couch in my office.”

Cas breathed out a sigh of relief that he wasn’t being sent home immediately, and then Dean’s meaning became clear. Dean was giving Cas his own bed for the night.

“Neither of those seems like a very good option.”

“Well I’m not gonna make you sleep on the couch while I’m all comfortable in my own bed.”

Cas smiled and nudged Dean with his shoulder. “You sound like a man who understands the guest ranch concept. But I wouldn’t dream of kicking you out of your own bed.” He only hesitated for a moment, giving Dean a skeptical look. “Don’t tell me you sleep on a camp cot or something ridiculously cowboy themed.”

Dean laughed. “No, I got a real bed. Memory foam. I probably would’ve run away to join the circus years ago if being a cowboy meant I had to sleep on a camp cot every night.”

“Then I can hardly make you sleep on a sofa on my account. If your bed is big enough to share, I wouldn’t object.”

Dean studied him for a moment, and then made an executive decision and led Cas up to his room.


	12. Chapter 12

They quietly passed two closed doors on the way to Dean’s room at the other end of the hall. He slipped inside first, moving through the dark to switch on a lamp on the nightstand while Cas shut the door behind him. Dean’s room was spacious and comfortable, decorated in the warm colors of the desert all around them. The furniture was all constructed of dark, heavy wood, rounded at all the corners, and the bedposts carved in a vague semblance of giant saguaro cacti, polished smooth with years of use.

While Cas took in the room, Dean stepped across to the bathroom, flicking on the light and rummaging through the cupboard. Dean stuck his head out and caught Cas’s attention, waving a toothbrush still in its package in one hand.

“Since you probably don’t keep one on you,” Dean said, as Cas walked over and took it from him. “I can find you something to change into. Or you can shower if you want. We’re probably pretty gross, actually…” Dean trailed off, frowning down at himself.

Cas reached up and rested one hand on Dean’s shoulder, bringing Dean’s attention back to him. “Are you uncomfortable with this?”

Dean’s eyes widened for a split-second. Yeah, he was a little uncomfortable with this. They’d spent the better part of the last few hours making out between looking at the stars, but just like back at that motel, maybe they were pushing their luck rushing into anything else. Not to mention they weren’t exactly alone in the house. It was a lot to deal with. One look into Cas’s understanding eyes was enough to ground him. In the weeks since their first kiss, everything had changed. Neither of them was about to run again.

All the illicit tension of that fateful night was gone. There was no reason to hold back, no current of guilt beneath all of their touches, and no obligation stop before they went too far. There was only one thing holding them back now.

“Cas, if you want this, I’m completely comfortable with it. But you gotta know that over the last few weeks, things have changed. If you hadn’t texted me back that night, I would’ve taken the hint and let it be. It woulda sucked, but I would’ve respected your decision.”

Cas nodded and stopped Dean from saying any more. “I understand, Dean. It’s the same for me. It took everything I had to turn my back on you once. I was grateful enough you didn’t turn your back on me.”

“Yeah,” Dean said with a self-deprecating little laugh. “Good thing I’m a desperate sonofabitch.”

Cas frowned and pulled Dean closer by his collar, startling a whine out of him. “You mean it’s a good thing you’re a kind and generous man willing to offer friendship when you believed your romantic appeal had failed.”

“That’s where the  _ desperate _ bit comes in. Last thing I wanted was for you to think I was some suckup just trying to stay on your good side because of the whole deal with Hannah and Sam.”

It was Cas’s turn to laugh. “I confess, I believed that could’ve been your motive, at first.”

Dean nodded thoughtfully, but Cas gave him another little tug, slipping one arm around Dean’s waist.

“It wasn’t a belief I held for long.”

“So you’re convinced I’m really into you,” Dean said, wrapping an arm around Cas and lifting the other to the side of his neck, holding him tight and letting his fingertips trail through the curls behind Cas’s ear.

Cas suppressed a shiver and nodded. “I’ve allowed myself to be persuaded.”

Dean leaned in slowly and very gently pressed a kiss to Cas’s lips. “What else can I persuade you into?”

They stood there exchanging increasingly heated kisses for several minutes. They pulled apart reluctantly when Dean suggested they might want to move things somewhere more comfortable than the bathroom before things went any further. They behaved themselves long enough to brush their teeth, and then Cas ended up shoving Dean out into the bedroom when he tried to steal a minty fresh kiss.

“We’ll end up right back where we started.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Dean asked as he stumbled backward toward the bed, kicking off his boots when he landed on the mattress.

“I wouldn’t have had to stop kissing you if you hadn’t insisted on moving to the bedroom. I refuse to be interrupted again.”

Cas tried to kick off his boots the same way Dean had, but they were still too stiff and new to slide off easily. He ended up growling in frustration and hopping around while tugging them off with his hands. Dean bit his lip in his struggle not to laugh. Cas glared at him as he pulled his socks off, lobbing one at Dean’s head before rubbing some feeling back into his toes.

Dean dropped the sock to the floor. “Not used to the boots yet?”

“I’ve worn them a grand total of three times, and once was for five minutes at the store Hannah dragged me to to buy them.”

Dean reached out and pulled Cas in between his knees, rubbing soothing circles against his lower back. “They take a little breaking in, but it’s worth it. You look hot in the boots.”

Cas rested his hands on Dean’s shoulders, his eyes slipping shut as he relaxed under Dean’s gentle massage. “I’m not wearing the boots to bed with you. I don’t care if you think it’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen.”

Dean snorted. “No boots in bed. I know where they’ve been. Hell, I already broke my no boots in the bedroom rule.” His hands froze on Cas’s back and he looked up in horror as Cas opened his eyes to glare at him for stopping. “I’m gonna have to steam clean the rug now.”

“Can it wait until morning?” Cas asked, kneading the sudden tension out of Dean’s shoulders.

Dean took a deep breath and Cas watched at least a dozen different looks cross his features before his hands got back to work, untucking his shirt and then making their way gradually up his spine. Cas pushed at the collar of Dean’s shirt, slipping his hands underneath and slowly working it down over his shoulders until Dean was forced to let Cas go long enough for him to pull the shirt all the way off. Dean tugged off his t-shirt as soon as his arms were free, and then pulled Cas back in and set to work on his buttons.

“I don’t wanna have to stop again,” Dean said, and Cas smiled down at him in approval.

“Then let me help.” He reached down to the ridiculous belt buckle that Dean could finally see up close and personal. A desert scene complete with cactus and howling coyote decorated the silver buckle, but he didn’t have time to poke fun at Cas before the belt hit the floor along with Cas’s jeans. Dean unbuckled his own belt, unfastened the buttons, and then slid backward up the bed, kicking his pants off as he went. It was Cas’s turn to bite back a laugh as Dean grinned at him from the head of the bed.

Dean patted the pillows on either side of him, raising an eyebrow as he took in Cas standing at the foot of the bed. “Plenty of room up here, Cas.” He was almost relieved when Cas didn’t move. He’d never really had a chance to just sit back and  _ look  _ at him before. Well, his hair was as mussed as ever, but Dean took a certain satisfaction that it was  _ his _ hands that had done the mussing, and it was also him putting that hungry look on Cas’s face. He’d seen Cas mostly naked back at that hot tub, but they’d either been under the water or hiding in shadows. He’d run his hands over Cas’s muscled shoulders and back, but he hadn’t had a chance to really appreciate the view until now.

After he’d looked his fill at Dean, Cas let out a low growl and then crawled up onto the bed, prowling up Dean’s body like a cat. He paused to run one hand up Dean’s leg, and then again to drag his fingers slowly up his stomach and chest until he’d straddled Dean’s hips, holding himself above Dean and looking down into his eyes.

Dean suddenly regretted not having dropped his boxers before finding himself trapped beneath Cas, his heart pounding and his breaths coming too fast. One thing he was learning about Cas was that his incredible patience was borderline torture in this situation, and boxers or not he just needed Cas to fucking touch him already.

Dean took a steadying breath and wrapped a hand around each of Cas’s wrists, sliding his hands up to his shoulders and then gently pulling Cas down into a kiss. He nearly cried out into Cas’s mouth when he finally settled himself down, grinding his hips against Dean’s and giving him a moment of relief with one languorous roll of his hips.

Cas’s breath caught at the sensation of Dean’s hard cock pressed alongside his own, even through two thin layers of cloth. He broke the kiss only long enough to watch Dean’s face as he rolled his hips again. Dean’s head fell back against the pillows and his lips parted around a quiet moan, and that was all Cas could bear before he needed to put his mouth back on Dean’s.  He was maddeningly torn between doing whatever it took to remove those last thin barriers between them and just rutting against Dean exactly as they were. He didn’t even care if they were behaving like horny teenagers. Just being with Dean like this was more than enough to make up for it.

Dean’s hands slid from his shoulders, down his back, hesitating for only a second at the elastic of his waistband before slipping underneath. He gave Cas’s ass a little squeeze and then pulled him down, grinding his own hips up and drawing a moan of pleasure from Cas. As their lips parted, Dean slipped his shorts down over his hips and then rolled them both over, working Cas’s boxers the rest of the way off before stripping off his own. He sat on his heels, kneeling between Cas’s thighs, catching his breath as he looked down at Cas spread out before him. He reached down almost without thinking and gave his aching cock a couple of gentle tugs as Cas lay there watching him, waiting.

“Are you having second thoughts?” Cas asked after half a minute.

Dean shook his head. “No, more like I can’t decide what I wanna do first.”

“If you’re open to suggestions, I’d just like you to touch me now, please.”

Dean smiled at that and leaned in closer. “You always this polite in bed?”

“I’m usually asleep in bed. This is the most excitement I’ve had in a bed since I fell and broke my arm while having a pillow fight with Hannah when I was twelve.”

Dean blinked down at him, running back through all their conversations about their past relationships, and wondering how he missed a detail this huge. “You’ve never done this before?”

Cas rolled his eyes impatiently. “Not in a bed.” When Dean continued to look at him skeptically, Cas elaborated. “We were on a sofa. It was a party, copious quantities of alcohol were involved, and nobody’s clothes came all the way off…”

After a beat, Dean resumed breathing. “Okay… okay. Then I guess we’ll start simple. Just… tell me if I do anything you don’t like, okay?”

“I trust you, Dean, or I wouldn’t be here at all.”

“And you’ll still respect me in the morning?”

Cas glared at him. “Not if you just sit there all night. Please, Dean.”

Dean nodded and started slow, kissing his way down Cas’s neck, stopping long enough to raise a red mark on his collarbone, leaving Cas writhing beneath him as he moved down, exploring with his fingers and lips and tongue. Cas rutted up against his stomach, his hands alternately clutched in Dean’s hair or scrambling from his shoulders and back across his neck, overwhelmed by the pleasure Dean lavished upon him. Dean spent several long minutes kissing his way from one hipbone to the other across Cas’s firm stomach, before finally giving in to Cas’s hushed and demanding  _ Dean, please _ accompanied by another roll of his hips.

He looked up at Cas as if he needed any further permission and saw only breathless need and a frantic desperation in Cas’s eyes. He smirked up at Cas and then licked a long, slow stripe up the underside of his cock before taking the head into his mouth and giving it a gentle suck. Cas let out a long, low moan and pitched his hips up. Dean pressed his hips back down and took the base in one hand before swallowing him down.

Cas clenched his hands in Dean’s hair as a strangled moan forced its way out of him. He fought to keep his eyes open, to not throw his head back and give himself over to the feeling of Dean’s mouth, his tongue. Heat coiled in his belly and he had the irrational thought that it would be unsatisfactory for Dean to not experience this with him. Cas tugged on Dean’s hair, but that only elicited a low moan from Dean that nearly sent him over the edge. He resorted to words.

“Dean. Dean… stop. Wait.”

Dean did exactly as asked. He pulled off, breathless and intoxicated, his lips pink and shiny. “Something wrong?”

Cas shook his head. “Come here.”

Dean blinked at him for a second.

“I need you. I need to feel more than your mouth on me. I need…”

Dean nodded as Cas pulled at his shoulder, his arms sliding around Dean’s back and pulling them flush. Cas’s legs wrapped around his thighs and squeezed, urging him to move as Dean found his mouth. He rutted against Cas’s hip a few times and then lifted his hips just enough to reach between them. Dean took both of them in hand and they were breathing too hard to kiss, but Cas had what he wanted. They stared into each other’s eyes until their vision whited out in release.

Dean tried to roll off him, but Cas held on as they came back to themselves. The sweaty, sticky mess between their stomachs ignored in favor of blinking at one another in euphoric shock. Cas smiled up at him, and a wave of warmth shuddered its way through Dean’s entire body like an aftershock. It was almost better than the orgasm. His breath caught in his throat and before he could say something stupid he leaned in for a kiss.

Hours later, or maybe a few minutes, he pulled back. Cas still had him trapped in the circle of his arms, his hands tracing lazy patterns across his back. And there was that smile again. He hated that he had to move at all. He slid out of Cas’s hold with the promise to be right back. Dean was only in the bathroom long enough to clean himself up before Cas followed him in.

“I was gonna bring you a towel,” Dean said.

Cas shrugged sleepily and took the cloth from Dean’s hands. He quickly wiped the drying mess from his stomach and then tossed the towel down on the counter while Dean watched. Cas turned to him and settled a hand on his hip, nudging Dean closer until he pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

Dean pulled back smiling. “We gonna start this again, or are we going back to bed?”

“Bed,” Cas replied, kissing him again and then grabbing his hand and leading the way.

They curled together under the blankets. Cas manhandled him, half asleep, until Dean was exactly the way he wanted him, as if Dean were a living body pillow. When he was comfortable, Cas sighed and wished him a good night, and Dean realized it really, really was.


	13. Chapter 13

For the first time in years, Dean didn’t wake up before the sunrise. He lay in bed as the morning light shone in the windows, marveling at the man curled around him. There were things he’d planned to do, things he’d already put off by a day so he could spend his entire Saturday playing out some Brokeback fantasy with Cas; a fantasy he never expected could have a happy ending.

Now he had a long list of chores that were going undone while he ran gentle fingers through Cas’s messy hair and wondered if he could just let a few things slide, just for one more day. It’s not like he didn’t have people he trusted to take care of business for him, and he figured they’d understand. Hell, they’d more than make up for it in teasing over the next few days.

Dean sighed, resolved to at least wait until Cas was up before worrying about anything else. He could have this one thing.

“I’m not keeping you from your work, am I?” Cas asked against Dean’s shoulder. He hadn’t moved, but somehow he’d known exactly what Dean was thinking.

“Nah. Well, yeah. But it’s not like I’m gonna fire myself over it.”

Cas’s arm tightened around his waist as he stretched, nuzzling his face against Dean’s neck, and then arching his back and blinking up at Dean. “Good morning.”

Dean couldn’t help but grin. Waking up to Cas was better than watching the most spectacular desert sunrise he’d ever seen. Maybe even better than the top ten combined.

“Mornin’, sunshine. You want some coffee?”

Cas leaned in for a kiss and then pulled back with a frown. “I suppose coffee would be a good idea.”

They reluctantly got up, and Dean loaned him a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Cas had been surprised by the offer, but it felt right. Dean wanted him to stay, wanted his company, and a pair of fleece pants and a faded old Led Zeppelin t-shirt were the proof.

Dean dressed similarly, in pajama pants and a long grey dressing gown. These were definitely lazing around the house clothes, and the domesticity of it all left Cas feeling all warm and fluttery as Dean took his hand and led him down to the kitchen.

Cas sat at the table and watched Dean putter around, getting the coffee started, opening cupboards and the fridge while pondering breakfast. Dean had set a carton of eggs on the counter and turned to ask Cas if he had any requests, only to see Cas picking up a sheet of paper, presumably Sam’s note from the night before. He sauntered over to the table with a smirk on his face.

“You gonna save that for posterity?”

Cas blinked up at him in a daze and handed over the page. On one side was Sam’s quick note, but on the back was an entirely different note, in entirely different handwriting. Dean read it over twice, because it was the sort of thing that couldn’t really be fully processed and internalized on a single reading.

_ Dear Castiel and Dean, _

_ We didn’t want to disturb you, so Sam and Eileen graciously offered to take me to breakfast and then drop me at home. When we didn’t find either one of you camped out on a sofa, we assumed you figured things out for yourselves. (Congratulations, by the way.) _

_ Sam asked me to inform Dean that he told Jesse you were taking the day off, and that you’re expected to actually do so. Sam and Eileen will be spending the rest of the day in Tucson. They mentioned something about taking in some local attractions so that they might also enjoy your day off. _

_ Love, Hannah _

When Dean finally looked back at Cas, he had a matching stunned look on his face. Cas just smiled.

“I think it might be worth holding on to, yes.”

Dean let it all sink in for a few minutes until the coffee maker beeped, snapping him out of the whirl of thoughts and questions spinning through his mind. He absently pulled a couple of mugs out of the cupboard and poured the coffee, handing a mug to Cas before dropping into the chair beside him.

“You think they heard us last night?” Dean asked.

Cas shrugged. “We didn’t hear them leave this morning. It’s possible they didn’t. I don’t believe we were  _ that _ loud…” He frowned, trying his best to recall every moment without completely losing himself in the memory of it all over again.

Dean roused him from his reverie with a nudge to his thigh. Cas bit his lip and felt his cheeks tingle, but Dean was smiling knowingly at him. “Had to think about it, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t  _ have _ to,” Cas replied.

Dean grinned and asked what he wanted for breakfast. They had more important things to discuss than how they ended up here in the first place. Over pancakes and bacon, they talked about the future.

Dean did eventually take Cas out on that romantic ride he’d planned. Turns out it was a lot more romantic when it was just the two of them and a picnic lunch. Back at the house they finally took the long shower they’d postponed the night before. They were glad they were alone in the house. Maybe they hadn’t made enough noise to be overheard last night, but between running the shower until the hot water ran out and Dean’s knees buckling as Cas pressed him against the tiles and wrung a second orgasm out of him, they were pretty sure anyone unfortunate enough to be in the house would’ve known exactly what they were up to.

When evening fell and they both worried that their day together was inevitably drawing to a close, Dean finally worked up the nerve to ask Cas if he could stay the night again.

“We are about ten minutes closer to Kitt Peak here than I would be at my house,” Cas replied as he chopped onions and dropped them into the bowl of tomatoes Dean had diced to make homemade salsa.

Dean busied himself with checking on the tamales steaming on the stove so he would’ve had an excuse not to be looking directly at Cas in case his offer was rejected. He nearly burned his hand on the hot steam dropping the lid back on the pot and turned to Cas so fast he nearly impaled himself on the knife Cas still had in his hand.

“What, did you actually google map that?”

Cas dropped the knife in the sink and shrugged. “I may have made some calculations.”

Dean switched off the burner under the tamales and slid an arm around Cas’s shoulders, pulling him in close. “So I guess this means it’s only practical for you to stay.”

“Of course, practicality was my main consideration,” Cas replied, wrapping his arms around Dean’s waist and giving up any pretense of maintaining his serious face.

Dean leaned in for a kiss that turned into another, that turned into a series of kisses that could’ve steamed the tamales all on their own. Which was the compromising position they were in when Sam and Eileen arrived home.

“Mmm, something smells fantastic,” Sam said, barging into the kitchen without batting an eyelash in their direction and heading straight to the stove.

Eileen rolled her eyes at Sam and offered an apologetic smile to Dean and Cas as they untangled themselves and tried to look as if they hadn’t been on the verge of defiling the kitchen. “Sorry about him. He was raised in a barn.”

Cas snorted, and Dean looked over at Eileen and made the sign for laughter.  “It’s fine,” Dean said. “You guys gave us an entire day.”

Sam signed as he spoke. “It was the least we could do. I should’ve known it would only encourage the PDA.”

“You know this is my kitchen, not a public space, right?” Dean asked, pulling Cas back to his side to present a united front. “They’re breaking ground on your house tomorrow, aren’t they? So how long until my private kitchen is actually private again?”

“Remind me never to walk in unannounced once we move out,” Sam said, while Eileen replied, “About three months, according to the contractor.”

Dean looked at Cas. “Hear that? We’ve only gotta put up with hecklers for about three more months before we can kick them out without guilt.”

Cas swallowed hard and let that sink in, his heart racing at the thought that Dean didn’t just want him to stay the night, but had implied that he’d still want him there months down the line as if it was a baseline fact of the universe. It was like the rest of his life suddenly came into focus, like the first time he’d looked through a telescope and watched a bright dot of light resolve itself into the rings of Saturn, all its moons clear and neatly in orbit. It was breathtaking and wondrous, and at the same time mind-bogglingly sublime. He hoped his voice wouldn’t quake while he tried to deadpan a reply that was practically bubbling out of him.

“I can endure three months of waiting, as long as it’s understood that kitchen PDA won’t be off the table in the meantime.”

Sam wrinkled his nose and cast a wary glance at the table, already set for the four of them for dinner. “I guess it’s too much to ask to keep the PDA off the  _ actual  _ table, right? I mean, we still have to eat here.”

Dean rolled his eyes and gave Cas a final kiss before finishing up with dinner.

 

Over the next few weeks, Cas began spending a lot more time at the ranch. The new hands Dean hired to work with their weekend guests were more than capable of picking up a little bit of the slack around the ranch in general, freeing up Dean to spend a couple evenings a week relaxing and enjoying his regular private astronomy lessons with Cas.

Hannah had been so busy supervising the construction of both the guest facilities and Sam’s house that it was Saturday before she met the first hand Dean had hired. Once again, Cas and Hannah had volunteered to be their guinea pigs. Inias needed to learn the ranch’s trail system so he’d be able to lead their guests on rides, and Sam and Eileen had gone into town to shop for furniture for their new house. That just left Dean, Cas, and Hannah to play the role of greenhorn ranch guests so Inias could have a trial run before having to handle the first real guests.

Halfway through the ride, Dean was worried that Inias had been too distracted by Hannah to pay attention to the trails Dean was teaching him to navigate, but Inias proved he was the king of multitasking. Despite having spent a good portion of the afternoon flirting with Hannah, he managed to lead them back to the barn, even pointing out a few rare specimens of local bird life and a host of other natural wonders along the way. It only served to impress Hannah all the more. After seeing to their horses, Dean and Cas left Hannah and Inias at the barn, deep in conversation and entirely absorbed in each other.

The following weekend saw a repeat of the previous, with Inias taking the lead this time and showing the ropes to their second new hire, Ion. Alex volunteered to ride along as their emergency backup guide in case Inias needed an assist, freeing up Dean and Cas to take their own private ride up the mountain.

“I still think this would be an excellent spot for stargazing,” Cas commented as they sat atop a cliff eating the sandwiches they’d packed and taking in the view.

Dean occasionally picked up a set of binoculars and spied on Inias and his little following as they made their way across the desert a quarter of a mile away, but most of his attention was devoted to Cas.

“I still think hauling even your small telescope up here in the dark would be a fucking pain in the ass.”

Cas just shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich. “We could bring it up in the afternoon, have a sunset picnic, and then watch the stars.”

Dean snorted. “Yeah, and then have to haul it all back down the mountain in the dark.”

“I know you are familiar with the concept of camping, Dean.”

“Yeah, well, that just means more shit to haul,” Dean countered again. “And I’d rather spend any night I can get with you in the comfort and privacy of our bed than up here on this rock.”

Cas slowly turned to Dean, his brow drawn down at Dean’s cavalier description. “Our bed?”

Dean opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as he sat frozen like a rabbit in the headlights while he tried to figure a way to backpedal out of the admission he hadn’t meant to confess. “Well, I mean you sleep there too most nights now, so…”

Cas replied carefully. “I suppose I do.”

“And I want you there, if you, you know… if you want to be there…” Dean trailed off. “I’m saying it’s yours, too, if you want it to be.”

Cas reached over and took Dean’s hand, entwining their fingers. He stared down at their clasped hands, and then out over the desert. “I’d like that very much.”

After that day, Cas’s things began migrating to Dean’s house. The first noticeable move happened on July 4th. Cas had the day off work, but the animals in Dean’s care didn’t understand holidays. Cas showed up early in the afternoon, just as Dean was finishing up his chores for the day. In addition to the big telescope, he’d brought a large duffel filled with clothes and assorted personal items. Dean came over to meet him just as he was struggling to pull the large steel case that held his telescope from the trunk.

“You got a body in there, or what?” Dean asked.

Cas turned and rolled his eyes at Dean. “Can you give me a hand?”

Dean grinned and moved around to grab the handle on one side of the case. “You know I’d help you get rid of the body. I know dozens of spots out in the desert where no one would ever find it.”

“It must be true love,” Cas grumbled. “Just don’t drop it. It’s heavier than it looks.”

Dean froze for a moment and blinked at Cas. They hadn’t said it in so many words, but Dean knew that’s exactly what this was. It had taken little more than a month for him to admit it to himself, and now Cas had gone and hit the nail on the head. Dean had been blindsided by the word so casually tossed out as a joke, but this definitely wasn’t the time for that particular confession. Cas raised his eyebrows and tilted his head at the case. Dean swallowed hard and nodded. Maybe not right this minute, but soon. He needed Cas to know.

“On three, then,” Cas said, and began counting.

They hefted the case out and set it gently on the ground, and Dean took off his hat to ruffle his hair. “How the hell did you get that in there by yourself? It’s gotta weigh at least 200 pounds.”

“Over 300, actually. And I cheated. I moved it in pieces, the case first, then packed the scope inside.”

“Yeah, we’re definitely not taking this one camping,” Dean muttered. “So where’s it going?”

“I thought maybe I could store it in your office, but for now I think it will be fine to leave it on the porch.” He waved a hand at Dean’s sheltered front porch, uncluttered aside from a bench swing that had seen a lot more use since Cas had been staying there. Morning coffee watching the sun rise from the porch with Cas had quickly become one of the best parts of their day.

Dean nodded absently and then noticed the large duffel bag still in the trunk. “You runnin’ away from home, Cas?”

Cas considered that for a second. “The opposite, I think.”

Dean just stood there and stared, a smile slowly blooming across his face as the words untangled themselves at the back of his throat. “Yeah. Yeah, welcome home, Cas.” He pulled Cas into a hug and planted a kiss on his lips. They were interrupted a moment later by the banging open of the kitchen door.

“Dean, the timer just went off on the oven.” Sam yelled out from the kitchen.

Dean closed his eyes for a second and clenched his jaw before stepping regretfully away from Cas and shouting back. “Turn it off and take the pies out. The cooling rack’s already on the counter.”

Sam nodded and ducked back into the house.

“Pie?” Cas asked, grinning at Dean. “I should’ve guessed.”

“Hey, it’s the fourth of July, and nothing’s more American than apple pie. Except maybe cherry pie. So I made one of each.”

Cas smiled wider, and Dean glanced away from his indulgent gaze, which drew his attention back to the giant telescope case. “So, porch?” 

Cas nodded. “I thought it would be a good night to set it up. After the fireworks we can admire the stars.”

“Sounds good to me, but I don’t think we’re gonna be hauling this thing out to our regular spot.”

They each bent down and lifted one side of the case, shuffling sideways toward the porch.

“No, I thought we could set it up at the end of the road,” Cas suggested, nodding down past where their cars were parked, where the dirt road tapered out into one of the trailheads leading off into the desert. “It’s a relatively short distance to walk, and should still offer magnificent viewing.”

“Long as you’re there, the view will be just fine by me.”

Dean shot a little smirk at Cas as they struggled to heft the case up the steps. Cas burst out laughing and had to set the case down before he dropped it. He went back to the trunk and pulled out his duffel bag, then carried it right back to where Dean still stood on the porch.

Cas had packed and unpacked the bag half a dozen times over the previous week. He'd left a few essentials at Dean's, and simply forgotten to bring home a few other random bits of clothing, the paperback he'd been reading, but deliberately bringing over half his wardrobe still felt a bit presumptuous. Dean had told him at least a dozen times that he was welcome, that he was wanted, but it still didn't feel entirely real.

“I hope you don’t mind if I keep a few things here? I probably should’ve asked first, but--”

Dean cut him off, taking the bag from Cas’s hand and leading him into the house. “You’ve been leaving stuff here for like two weeks now. This just seems practical at this point.”

In Dean’s room, he set the bag down on the bed, and Cas stood just inside the doorway as Dean bustled around the room, pulling out drawers and opening the closet.

“Your t-shirts,” Dean said, pointing to a drawer that contained half a dozen shirts, some of which had been Dean’s until Cas had begun borrowing them regularly. Pointing to a smaller drawer, “Your socks.” He walked over to the closet and ran his hand along a section of empty hangers, setting them all clattering and swinging. “Figured you’d eventually leave something here that needed hanging up.”

“You made room for me?” Cas asked, walking over to stand beside Dean.

Dean turned to him, looking him straight in the eyes. He took a deep breath. “Cas, I’ve been making room for you since I met you. However you’re willing to fit yourself into my life, I’ll make room for you.”

Cas nodded, letting the weight of Dean’s admission settle over him like a warm blanket. “I can’t believe I almost walked away from this.”

“I can’t believe I almost let you.” Dean cleared his throat. “But we didn’t. And what you said before, it’s the truth.”

Cas narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, trying to think back over what Dean could be referring to. His mouth opened and closed as Dean blushed and wound an arm around his waist, pulling him in close and all but whispering his confession.

“I love you, Cas. I want you to stay.”

Cas’s eyes widened and he nodded slowly. “I love you too, Dean. And I’ll stay as long as you’ll have me.”

Dean let out a relieved sigh and rested his forehead against Cas’s. “It’s a good thing you brought such a big suitcase then, because I don’t think I ever want you to go.”

Cas laughed again, and it was a good long while before they got around to unpacking.

 

The following weekend brought Winchester 275’s  first paying guests. Dean rode along with Inias and Ion, letting them take the lead with half a dozen complete strangers. During lunch, Dean put on a calf roping demonstration, and then he, Jesse, Cesar, and Cas showed off their team cattle penning skills. Afterward, Dean left Inias and Ion to it. They had everything under control, and by all accounts, their guests were having a fabulous time. From then on, Dean was content to let them do their jobs. He still worried about his ranch being overrun with strangers every day, but he let go of the fear that it would turn his life upside down.

Thursday afternoon while Dean was finishing up in the barn, he got a text from Cas asking if he could come over after work to talk. Cas had left that morning and planned to come back Friday afternoon. He still liked to spend a few nights a week with Hannah, and it worried Dean immediately that Cas had apparently cancelled his plans with his sister. Despite the feeling of dread Cas’s seemingly innocuous request had welled up, Dean replied that of course Cas could come by any time he wanted to. Cas replied with a smiley face emoji which didn’t really do much to quell Dean’s nerves.

He was pacing out by the main horse paddock talking to himself and the horses when he heard Cas’s car rumbling up the driveway. He reached out and petted Sunflower’s nose, thanking her for listening to his bullshit, before steeling himself and making his way over to greet Cas.

The engine shut off and Dean waited for Cas to get out of the car. He looked haggard and drawn, but he still managed a weak smile when he saw Dean walking toward him. Cas held out his arms and Dean breathed a little sigh of relief as he pulled Cas into a hug.

“You look like you could use a drink.”

“I think I could drink an entire liquor store,” Cas replied.

“What the hell happened?” Dean asked, guiding Cas into the kitchen to get him a beer.

Cas sighed, pulling out the chair at the kitchen table that had become  _ his _ chair over the last few weeks. Dean handed him a beer and then sat down beside him.

“I’ve been offered a promotion,” Cas said with an exhausted roll of his eyes, and then took a long draft of his beer.

“And that’s a bad thing?” Dean asked, wondering how that could be anything but good news.

Cas sighed and set his bottle down, idly wiping beads of moisture from the cool glass as he collected his thoughts. “The program I’ve been working on for the last few years is being defunded, but I’ve been offered either a transfer to another program at Kitt Peak, or…”

Dean frowned, leaning in and resting a hand on Cas’s knee. He knew how much Cas loved his work, and he could see just how the mere thought of abandoning it was hurting him. He also knew there was another shoe that was about to drop, so he braced himself. “Or…”

Cas took a deep breath and took Dean’s hand, looking him in the eye. “Or I could accept a transfer to Big Bear and continue my research.”

Dean let that sink in for a second, and then closed his eyes and nodded. “California. I get it.”

Cas was silent for a moment and then squeezed Dean’s hand until he opened his eyes again, revealing the hurt resignation there. “No, Dean. I don’t think you do. I don’t want to leave, but I also have no interest in the position I was offered here.”

“Big Bear’s not that far,” Dean hedged, still not understanding, even as Cas shifted in his seat and stared down at their hands as he twined their fingers together.

“I don’t want to go to Big Bear, Dean. I was… this is a difficult thing to ask…”

“Whatever it is, Cas, we’ll work it out.”

Cas nodded, and looked up at Dean. “I was going to ask if I could stay.”

Dean stared at him like he’d spoken in a foreign language. “I thought we already had this conversation. There wasn’t an expiration date on that invitation.”

Cas took a deep breath and blew it out. “I meant, stay here, with you, full time. I know you had some ideas about having me run astronomy night programs for guests once the hotel was up and running, but what if I were to maybe work here full time? ” When Dean didn’t answer right away, Cas sat back in his seat and untangled his fingers from Dean’s so he could pick up his beer again. “Or not, I guess. I’m sorry, I know that’s a terrible assumption on my part.”

“No!” Dean said, his heart restarting and pounding away at double time to make up for having nearly stalled out entirely. “No, it’s not. Cas, are you really gonna give up your work? I mean the only Heliostat we got here is a horse.”

Cas let out a little laugh. “You know I am rather attached to Sunflower. I don’t know if I could live with myself if she thought I’d abandoned her.”

“I should’ve known. You love the horse more than me.”

“That’s not true.”

Dean smiled. “Yeah, I know. But your work…”

“Dean, I haven’t had anything  _ but _ my work for a long time now.” He leaned closer to Dean, setting his bottle back down. “Remember the first night I brought the telescope over?”

Dean raised an eyebrow and gave Cas a salacious little smirk. “Kinda a hard night to forget.”

Cas tried not to smile at him-- it would only encourage him-- and went right on with his point. “Before that. You remember what I said when you teased me about mounting telescopes?”

“Yeah,” Dean replied after a moment. “Cold and lonely.”

Cas nodded. “That was an accurate description of my life before I met you. I dedicated my life to studying the sun, and still it couldn’t keep me warm at night. When I’m with you, it’s like basking in the light day and night. I’m not willing to give that up to go back to what I had before.”

“Did you just imply that I’m your sunshine, sunshine?”

“I’m being serious, Dean.”

“So am I.” Dean sighed and set his bottle down, turning his chair toward Cas, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. “I don’t know how many times you need me to say it, but I want you to stay. Here. With me.”

Cas swallowed and nodded, taking Dean’s hands in his. “Then I want to stay.”

A grin slowly spread across Dean’s face, accompanied by a wicked glint in his eye. “So, are you gonna be a cowboy now?”

“I’d need to buy a hat for that.”

“I think I got a few you could borrow”

Cas smiled and shook his head. “I’ve also been assured that I won’t have to sleep on a camp cot.”

“Is this your way of telling me you wanna wear the cowboy hat to bed?” Dean asked. Cas huffed out a laugh as his cheeks went pink. “Because I’m not opposed to that.”

“I suppose that’s part of the authentic cowboy experience, then?” Cas shot back as soon as he’d recovered.

Dean slid his hands from Cas’s knees up his thighs and leaned in for a kiss. “Just for you, sunshine.”

Cas sighed, kissed Dean again, and then sat back in his chair, feeling the weight of his day melt away. He picked up his beer and clinked it against Dean’s bottle before taking another sip.

 

Summer dragged on, and by the end of July, Cas was all but living at the ranch. For that matter, so was Hannah. She was pulling such long hours between managing the weekend guest program, supervising both construction sites, and getting everything set in place for the official opening of the guest house that she’d all but commandeered Dean’s guest room as her temporary office and home away from home. With all the time she’d been spending there, her flirtation with Inias had developed into a budding romance. It left Cas wondering why he was still paying for a house across town. By the end of August, after a long discussion with Dean, he’d finally put it on the market.

 

Sam and Eileen moved out the last week in September, and Hannah moved with them. Dean had tried to argue that Sam and Eileen deserved a little alone time after being stuck in his house all those months, but Eileen insisted.

“We lived alone for years, Dean. You and Cas deserve a little time to get settled together, too.”

Cas had been prepared to stomp on his foot if Dean had continued to argue with her, but he was relieved he didn’t have to. Now that he’d gotten used to wearing cowboy boots, he knew just how painfully he could’ve stomped with them on.

The weekend after Sam and Eileen moved out, Dean threw Cas a party to celebrate his last day of work, and the first day of his official career as a cowboy and full-time member of the Winchester 275 family. He’d gone all out for the celebration, even ordering a cake shaped like the cowboy hat he’d bought as a gift for Cas. He’d set the hat and the cake side by side on the table, marked with signs reading “Wear, do not eat,” and “Eat, do not wear.” Cas was the only one who’d laughed, right before smushing a slice of the cake on Dean’s head.

Cas took to ranch life like he’d been born to it. He joined Dean on his morning ride every day, and then spent a few hours helping Hannah with her work. By the end of October, he knew every trail on the property, and as much about the history and natural features of the land as Dean did. He’d even taken to leading the occasional tourist group on half-day nature rides. Toward the end of the month, he had Hannah add an optional evening astronomy session to their single day program, which had been a huge success.

 

The first weekend in November, everyone helped Hannah move into the nearly completed guest house. Her office and apartment were done, and only the final touches on the guest rooms and the huge commercial kitchen were left to finish before their first guests checked in. She’d finally had all her things in storage in San Francisco shipped down, but she’d ended up selling most of her modern furniture in favor of the rustic and comfortable ranch style she’d decorated the rest of the guest house with.

“I guess this means you’re planning to stay on for a while,” Cas asked while she supervised the delivery of her new bedroom furniture.

“I like it here,” she replied, most of her attention on the men carrying a heavy wooden dresser through the freshly painted doorway.

“So you’re giving up architecture for a career in resort management?” Cas teased, much the same as she’d teased him about giving up astronomy for a career as a cowboy.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she replied, waving a hand down the hallway toward her office. “They already set up my drafting table, and I’ve already shown several potential clients around the property. I’ll be able to design resorts with a new insight from the perspective of a guest and a manager, while still being on site to keep things running smoothly here. Plus, I have Sam and Eileen to help.”

“And me,” Cas said, smiling fondly at his sister. “And Inias,” he added, nudging her with his elbow.

She blushed and returned her focus to the arrangement of her new furniture. “Inias is busy with his own work.”

Cas just nodded and left her to it. He wasn’t about to needle her too hard about Inias. Cas had gotten to know him well over the last few months, and he was a good man who treated his sister like a queen. He was happy for the both of them, and if Inias had played even a small part in Hannah’s decision to stay on at the ranch, Cas felt like he owed the man a fruit basket, at the very least.

 

The first overnight guests checked in on a cool and sunny Thursday in November. Dean, Cas, and Cesar were all on hand, sitting on the comfy sofas arranged around a huge stone fireplace in the main hall of the guest house while Hannah outlined all the activities available to the family during their stay. Dean, despite his months of grumbling about not wanting anything to do with the guest ranch side of things, immediately introduced himself and spent ten minutes explaining how they’d each be matched with a horse that would suit their level of riding experience, and then lovingly extolling the virtues of the property, the people who lived and worked there, and his animals.

Hannah cast a fond yet quelling glance over at Dean, assured the guests that he’d introduce them to their horses as soon as they’d settled in, and then showed them up to their rooms. The family of five were back in the lobby less than ten minutes later, excited for the opportunity to begin riding.

Within an hour, three more families and a honeymooning couple had checked in and found their way out to the riding arena. Inias and Ion, now hired on full-time, pitched in to help get everyone saddled up. It took Dean some time, and repeated gentle reminders from Cas that he didn’t have to do everything himself, but he finally allowed himself to relax and let go, and to trust that his people had everything in hand.

Most of the guests only had time for a quick evaluation of skills before the dinner bell rang and Dean escorted them all back to the outdoor dining area. As promised, the chef Hannah had hired had been happy to prepare Dean’s favorite desserts. After three attempts by Cas to drag Dean home so he’d let their guests eat their dinner in peace, Hannah finally bribed Dean into going home with a large helping of berry cobbler while Sam and Eileen watched on in utter bemusement.

Over a much quieter dinner in their own kitchen, Cas took the opportunity to gently tease Dean, who’d spent the morning completely distracted and on edge while waiting for the first guests to arrive.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Dean stabbed a blackberry with his fork and popped it into his mouth. “Eh, ‘snot as good as mine, but at least I didn’t have to make it.”

Cas raised an eyebrow. “No, you’re enjoying the fact that so many strangers only had to set foot on the ranch in order to fall in love with it.“

Dean stopped chewing for a moment, staring at Cas and nodding slowly. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. You’ve poured your soul into this land, into your horses, and it’s only logical you’d feel proud of it.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda nice to hear, actually. Even from total strangers. Nothing was ever good enough for my old man, and Sam spent most of his life trying to get the hell away from here. For years, it was just me who gave a shit about this place at all.”

Cas shook his head. “It wasn’t  _ just _ you. Garth and Bess, Jesse and Cesar, Alex… you’ve got a lot of people who love it here. People who are just as proud as you are to call it their home. And now Sam and Eileen are here, and Hannah--”

Dean reached out and rested his hand on Cas’s thigh. “And you.”

“To me, home is wherever you are,” Cas replied, and Dean made a little choking noise to counter the blush taking over his face. “Don’t do that, Dean. Just accept it. I love the ranch, too, but I love you more. The world could fall away around us, but as long as you were with me, I’d still feel at home.”

Dean blinked at Cas and then did something unimaginable. He abandoned his cobbler and stood up, pulling Cas to his feet and tugging him into a hug. In hushed and halting tones, face buried against the crook of Cas’s neck, he confessed. 

“Same, Cas. You know what it’s like here now, but for years after mom died, it was real bad. Dad would hire new help only to either drive them off by treating them like shit, or fire them. It was pretty damn lonely growing up here, with an endless string of strangers just passing through. It was never like a family until I was old enough to start taking over.

“First person I hired was Garth. Dad had pissed off pretty much every qualified ranch hand in southern Arizona by that point. Garth was the only guy who wasn’t afraid of Dad’s reputation for being a dick to the help, and for the first time in years we started turning a profit again. When I hired Jesse and Cesar, dad was so pissed when he learned they were married he tried to run them off the property. When I stood up for them, he took off. Didn’t come home for over a month. By the time he did, I’d sold most of the cattle and invested in horses. He threatened to sell the entire ranch, seeing as how I was destroying everything he’d ever built.”

“Oh, Dean,” Cas said, pulling back to look Dean in the eye, raising a hand to his cheek. “You didn’t destroy it, you saved it. You grew it into something your mother would’ve been proud of. She’d love what you’ve made of it.”

Dean smiled at that and leaned into Cas’s hand. “Yeah, I’d like to think so. I’d like to think she’d love you, too. For years all I had was this place. I put everything into it, and at the end of the day there was nothing left for me. Having you here changed everything.”

“No more cold and lonely for us,” Cas agreed.

Dean leaned in and pressed a kiss to Cas’s lips. Things were just beginning to get interesting when Dean’s phone rang in his pocket. He ignored it at first, but whoever was calling was persistent enough to try again. He sighed and rested his forehead against Cas’s as he pulled out his phone.

“Of course it’s Sam.”

“You should answer it. There may be an emergency over at the guest house.”

“To think I was starting to like the idea... “ He shook his head and answered. “What is it, Sam?”

Cas watched Dean’s face go on a little journey as he reacted to whatever Sam was saying, punctuated with a series of monosyllabic noises in reply from Dean. The call lasted less than a minute before Dean hung up and looked up at Cas with a strange light in his eye. Cas gave him a skeptical look, and didn’t even have to ask Dean what was up.

“We’ve been formally invited to our own bar for karaoke night,” Dean said. “Wanna go out for a drink?”

“You’re not going to make me sing, are you?” Cas asked warily.

Dean shrugged, trying to look innocent. “We can just cheer on everyone else if you want.”

Cas narrowed his eyes at Dean, but eventually gave one slow nod. “We should probably go before Sam sends out a search party for us.”

“Not much of a search,” Dean said, pulling Cas in for one last kiss. “He knows where we live.”

 

It was a short walk from their house to the guest house. The old cattle paddock had been completely transformed over the last few months. As they rounded the side of the barn, newly planted gardens opened up into a network of footpaths meandering between the planted beds to guide guests to various destinations around the ranch-- some of which still only existed in Hannah’s blueprints.

The guest house stood three stories tall and illuminated from the fountain in the courtyard all the way to the beams along the roofline, like a sheltering oasis of humanity in the vast, dark desert. It was now the largest building on the property, dwarfing even the barn, but it seemed even larger now that it was filled with life. As they got closer, they heard music coming from the bar at the opposite side of the building.

“Wonder how much louder that’s gonna get on concert nights,” Dean said, frowning a little.

“I don’t think we’re likely to be bothered by noise all the way back at the house,” Cas replied, taking Dean’s hand and giving it a little squeeze. “And Sam promised quiet by ten every night, regardless.”

“Even on astronomy nights?” Dean raised an eyebrow.

Cas replied with his most stoic face. “Every night is astronomy night.”

Dean just grinned at him, stopping long enough to look up at the stars before letting Cas drag him along again. They passed the construction zone that would eventually be the swimming pool and spa complex, then walked across the large outdoor patio that felt like a larger scale model of his own back porch, only with seating for dozens of people and a large bonfire pit for chilly nights and the kitschy cowboy singalongs Hannah had insisted on working into the weekly schedule.

As they rounded the corner of the guest house, Dean was surprised to see the parking lot as full as it was. He thought he’d met all the guests who’d checked in, but there were more than a dozen cars there now. They followed one last short path along the side of the guest house to the sheltered patio attached to the bar.

The entire exterior wall of the bar was made up of a long row of French doors, all of which stood open as people milled around with drinks and snacks, enjoying the pleasant evening and the entertainment. On the small outdoor stage at one end of the patio, Sam had set up the karaoke equipment and a cluster of people had crowded around a table to put their names down to sing.

Dean glanced around, looking for his brother as Night Moves played over the sound system to warm up the crowd. He finally spotted Sam standing at the bar, chatting with a blonde woman he’d never met before who was pouring Sam a beer. He was about to go over and introduce himself and Cas to their new bartender when Cas gasped and practically dragged him through the crowd.

“Claire! What are you doing here?” Cas asked as Dean tried to compose himself.

“Wait, you know her?” 

The woman smirked at Dean and then smiled fondly at Cas. “Surprise, I guess.”

Hannah came through the door from the kitchen carrying another tray of appetizers and stopped in her tracks to detour over to the bar with a huge grin on her face. “Surprise!”

Cas blinked at Claire, and then at Hannah, while Dean stood there doing a fair impersonation of a goldfish. He eventually managed to stick his hand out toward Claire.

“Hey, Dean. Nice to meet you, Claire.”

Claire shook his hand and smiled. “I’m their niece.” She tilted her head toward Hannah and Cas. “But I’ll be tending bar in the evenings and helping out in the barn during the day.”

Cas nodded happily at this news and then beamed at Claire. “It’ll be good to have you around. There’s no better place to work with horses than in Dean’s barn.”

Hannah nodded her agreement. “Cesar’s agreed to take her on as an apprentice trainer.” She turned to Claire again. “And Cas is right. It’s nothing like Uncle Marv’s here. You’re gonna love it here, and everyone here’s gonna love you, too.” She grinned at Dean and then got back to work, weaving through the crowd, chatting with everyone she met as she went.

“So Aunt Hannah’s been telling me how happy you’ve been here, Cas,” Claire said, regarding Dean a little more warmly. “After working for Uncle Marv for a year, it’s a relief to finally have somewhere better to go.”

A couple came up to the bar to order drinks and Claire excused herself with a promise to join Dean and Cas on their morning ride so Dean could get to know her, and she and Cas could catch up. When she was gone, Dean turned to Sam, who was smugly sipping his beer.

“So, what’s so urgent you needed us here right away? Springing long-lost relatives on Cas?”

Cas quickly added, with a smile at Claire, “Which was a wonderful surprise, by the way.”

Sam smiled and set his beer down. “That’s all on Hannah. She’s been trying to convince Claire to move down here for the last couple months, and it all finally worked out just a few days ago. She’s only been here a few hours, but I think she’s gonna fit right in.”

Dean watched her work for a few moments, and then reached over the bar for a couple of glasses, pouring him and Cas drinks from the wrong side of the bar while Claire watched, horrified. Dean shoved a few dollars in her tip jar and then tipped his hat at her as she shook her head and got back to her other customers. Sam snorted and got up off his bar stool, the seat of which Dean only just now noticed was an actual saddle.

“Dude, what the hell? After sitting in a saddle all day, you think people want to sit on  _ another  _ saddle when they’re kicking back for a few drinks?”

Sam shrugged. “It’s a novelty for the folks who visit here, Dean. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of boring old chairs for you to sit your grumpy ass on.” He waved a hand around the room, filled with people who seemed genuinely happy to be there, sitting in all those boring old chairs.

“Fine,” Dean grumped. “Me and Cas are gonna go sit outside for a while, then. At least as long as nobody sings any Starship.”

“I just need one thing from you first, then you can do whatever you want,” Sam said, pulling on the sad puppy face for all it was worth. “Would you say a few words to the guests before we start? Just, you know, welcoming them, thanking them. Maybe tell them a little about the ranch or whatever?”

“Why don’t you, Sam. This is all your baby,” he said, waving one hand in a circle in the air.

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have even been possible if it wasn’t for you. Please?”

Dean turned his long-suffering look on Cas, who raised an eyebrow in challenge. Dean looked down and took Cas’s hand, and thought about everything he’d gained from this entire endeavor. Sam came home and brought a whole new side of the family with him. Most importantly, it brought him Cas. He couldn’t really say no.

Dean sighed. “Fine. I’ll say a few words.” He pointed a finger at Sam’s chest. “But we’re not gonna sing, capisce?”

Cas snorted out a laugh as Sam nodded happily at his brother.

“Gotcha. No singing,” Sam said, leading the way to the stage. He waited another minute for Renegade to finish playing, and then cut the music and addressed the crowd as Dean and Cas waited at the side of the stage.

“Hey, everyone. I think I’ve had a chance to meet all of you, but if not, I’m Sam Winchester. I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves.”

Dean glanced around happily as a few people called out various affirmatives, and someone who’d probably already had a bit too much to drink shouted out a  _ hell, yeah _ .

“That’s the spirit,” Sam said. “We’re gonna start karaoke here in just a sec, but first I wanted all of you to meet my brother, Dean. None of us would be here right now if it weren’t for him.”

A few people in the audience applauded as Dean took the stage, practically dragging Cas along with him. Cas tried to let go of his hand, but Dean only squeezed harder, casting one pleading glance back at him before he relented and clambered up on stage behind Dean. Sam handed him the microphone and then took a few steps off to the side so Dean and Cas were center stage, Dean still with one hand clamped tightly around Cas’s.

“Howdy,” he said, smiling weakly at several dozen strange faces. “I’m Dean. You’ll probably see me around while you’re here. This is Cas,” Dean said, tilting his head toward Cas.

Cas sighed and rolled his eyes, leaning in to speak into the microphone.

“You’ll have to excuse Dean. He spends most of his time talking to livestock.”

The crowd laughed, and Dean felt some of the tension melt out of his shoulders as Cas turned and smiled at him. Dean shifted, finally letting go of Cas’s hand and throwing his arm around Cas’s shoulders.

“Welcome to Winchester 275. You’re our first ever guests, so I don’t really know what I’m doing up here. I… uh… I’ve lived my whole life on this ranch, and everyone you meet who works here is like family to me--”

“Or actually family,” Sam called out.

Dean rolled his eyes. “That, too. But, uh, I know I’m speaking for all of ‘em when I say we’re glad you’re all here. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of building all this when Sam first brought it up last spring, but a lot of good has already come of it.” He gave Cas’s shoulders a squeeze and smiled over at him. “For one thing, I never would’ve met Cas if I’d said no, and now I can’t imagine my life without him.”

A chorus of awww’s erupted from the audience and Dean did his best to ignore them and the stinging in his cheeks. He would  _ not  _ let himself turn into a blushing puddle of goo on stage. He cleared his throat.

“So, yeah, we hope you come to love it here as much as we do. You’ll probably have Hannah to thank for that,” he said, pointing her out standing in one of the open doorways to the bar, and she gave everyone a little wave. “And Sam and Eileen.” He pointed over at them, and Sam paused signing for Eileen to beam up at him.

“I, uh… I don’t know what else to say, except tomorrow’s stargazing night with Cas. There’s some sort of meteor thing happening--”

Cas grabbed the microphone. “The Leonid meteor shower peaks tomorrow night, and I’ll be setting up the large telescope for other celestial viewing.”

Dean grinned at him. “Yeah, Cas here is an astronomer, so you don’t wanna miss a chance to stare at the sky with him and his large telescope.”

Cas snorted and shook his head while a few members of the audience laughed. Dean noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over to see Eileen and Hannah practically pushing Sam up on stage. Sam cast a wary glance back at them, and then an apologetic smile at Dean as the music started and the karaoke screen lit up in front of him. Dean didn’t even need to read the title displayed to know what Sam had done.

He caught Cas looking up at the screen, a moderate amount of horror quickly overtaken by a fit of laughter.

“You okay with this?” Dean asked. “We can still walk away if you don’t wanna sing.”

“I think this song was meant for us,” Cas replied, as the first lines of Space Cowboy scrolled up the screen.

The moment they got to the chorus, the entire audience caught on to the joke, and Dean encouraged them all to sing along. During the guitar solo, he took off his hat and plonked it down on Cas’s head, getting into the music and dancing around the stage while Cas watched on bemusedly. When it was over, Cas leaned in and kissed him as the audience cheered. He handed the microphone back to Sam on their way off the stage.

“Next time you pull that shit, me and Cas are handing the microphone to you, Sinatra. See how you like it.”

Sam just held up his hands in surrender. “In my defense, I was coerced.”

Cas glared over at his sister, who looked satisfied and maybe a bit smug, before glancing at Eileen who was the picture of innocence. “Yes, they’re a devious lot. I’ll find some way to get back at Hannah for this.” He went to the laptop set up for karaoke registration and typed in Hannah’s name and Can’t Fight This Feeling, since it was the first song that popped into his head when he wondered what might possibly embarrass his sister the quickest.

Dean snorted as he read the entry over Cas’s shoulder, and then plucked his hat from atop Cas’s head so he could wave it at Hannah. It was only then that she started to grow suspicious enough to see what they were up to, but Sam was already calling up the next singer, with only a slight look of panic as he glanced between Cas and Hannah. Dean jumped off the front of the stage, followed by Cas, and they both hustled through the crowd and out into the relative darkness of the walking path back to the main courtyard before Hannah even had a chance to catch them. She wouldn’t abandon the bar full of guests just to chase them down. At least not tonight.

“We shouldn’t have done that to Hannah,” Cas said as soon as they’d put some distance between themselves and the noise of the bar.

“We?” Dean asked him, huffing indignantly. “I think that was all on you, pal.”

“You’re an enabler,” Cas retorted.

“Whatever. Should I be expecting a return volley of pranks now, or are you two more mature than me and Sammy are?”

Cas smiled fondly at Dean and slipped an arm around his waist as Dean pulled him in closer. “I think she’ll forgive us when she’s realized that she enjoyed herself. I will advise you against playing any pranks on Claire, though. She’s both devious and resourceful, and she can hold a grudge.”

Dean huffed out a laugh and leaned in to plant a kiss on Cas’s temple. “I don’t wanna prank your family, Cas. I can tell how happy you are to have them here.”

Cas hummed. “And I think Claire’s happy to be here, too, especially after meeting Alex.”

“Wait, what?” Dean asked, and stopped walking just as they reached the back of the barn. “How did I miss that?”

“The entire time we were there, Alex was sitting at the end of the bar talking with Claire between customers. I believe the two of them have hit it off.”

Dean thought about that for a second, and then started walking again. As they reached their front porch, Dean hesitated.

“You think we’d be able to see some of those meteors tonight?”

“It’s highly doubtful, but if you’d just like to lie out and watch the sky for a while, I wouldn’t object.”

Dean grinned and pulled him in for a kiss. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

They went through the house, Dean pulling a blanket off the sofa on their way, while Cas fetched a couple of beers from the fridge. Since Cas had moved in, they’d spent an increasing number of nights out on the back patio just looking up at the sky together, sometimes talking late into the night, other times inadvertently camping out when they nodded off. It only took one stiff and uncomfortable morning for Cas to decide that they needed a more comfortable piece of furniture than Dean’s old adirondack chairs for stargazing purposes. That afternoon he’d ordered a lounge that Dean had teasingly dubbed the double-wide hammock, but it had proven itself by being both comfortable for watching the skies as well as general cuddling in the privacy of their own backyard.

As they lay together under the blanket that night, they forgot about the heavens stretched out above them and the rest of the earth might as well have fallen away. They thanked their lucky stars that they’d found each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank y'all so much for reading! If you haven't had enough flailing over cowboy hats, please find me on the tumbls. I'm always here for random flailing about cowboy hats. I'm [mittensmorgul](https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thanks again to [whichstiel](https://whichstiel.tumblr.com/) for the incomparable artwork (which I'm still crying about). Please go share some love either on the [tumblr art masterpost](https://whichstiel.tumblr.com/post/171557304715/winchester275art) or the [AO3 post](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13879443).
> 
> If you'd like, please also have a link to the [Official Pinefest tumblr post](http://deancaspinefest.tumblr.com/post/171592174202/title-winchester-275-author-mittensmorgul) for this work.
> 
> And if your Pining Needs aren't satisfied, please see the rest of this year's entries in the [Dean/Cas Pinefest](https://deancaspinefest.tumblr.com/). (and last year's entries too! We've got plenty of pining to go around!)


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